iiltlllH!l!l'il!!llil  !'  'lli'llliFli'!!' 


S3S.3 


;^m2J 


Qloixxxixlna  ^ixxxxxi^v&xtu 
in  Uxc  ®itii  0t  llctu  ||ark 


l^ibvary 


GIVEN    BY 


REV.    GEORGE    A.    GORDON 


CELEBRATION  OF 
THE  FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY 


OF  THE 


American    Congregational 
Association 


IN  TREMONT  TEMPLE,  BOSTON 
MONDAY,  MAY  TWENTY-FIFTH 
MCMIII,  AT  SEVEN-THIRTY  P.M. 


m^ 


BOSTON 

THE  AMERICAN   CONGREGATIONAL  ASSOCIATION 

MCMIII 


NOTE 

The  date  of  the  jubilee  meeting  coincided  with  that  of  the 
May  festival  of  the  Boston  Congregational  Club.  When  this  be- 
came known,  the  Club  generously  voted  to  give  up  the  festival  and 
unite  with  the  Association  to  celebrate  its  anniversary.  Commit- 
tees were  appointed  on  both  sides,  and  all  the  arrangements  were 
made  and  carried  out  with  the  utmost  harmony.  At  their  first 
meeting  subsequent  to  the  jubilee  the  directors  of  the  Association 
passed  the  following  votes : 

"  That  grateful  acknowledgment  is  hereby  made  by  the  American  Con- 
gregational Association  to  Rev.  George  A.  Gordon,  D.D.,  for  the  very  great 
and  valuable  service  rendered  to  Congregationalism  in  our  land  by  his  most 
interesting  address  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Association  in  Tremont 
Temple  on  May  25,  1903." 

"  That  Dr.  Gordon  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy  of  the  address  for 
publication." 

"That  the  thanks  of  the  Association  be  given  to  the  Boston  Congrega- 
tional Club  for  its  invaluable  assistance  and  hearty  cooperation  in  carrying 
out  to  so  happy  a  conclusion  the  public  meeting  of  its  fiftieth  anniversary." 

"  Whereas,  the  fiftieth  meeting  of  the  Association  was  greatly  indebted 
for  its  success  to  the  musical  numbers  so  efficiently  rendered  by  the  combined 
choirs  of  the  Shawmut  Church,  Boston,  and  the  Eliot  Church,  Newton, 

"  Resolved,  that  the  hearty  thanks  of  the  Association  be  given  to  these 
organizations,  with  special  acknowledgment  to  Mr.  Henry  M.  Dunham  and 
Mr.  Everett  E.  Truette,  their  leaders,  for  their  kind  services." 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

of  the 
American   Congregational  Association 

(Condensed  from  the  Fiftieth   Annual  Report) 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  May,  1853,  in  the  Old 
South  Chapel,  Boston,  an  addition  was  made  to  the 
happy  family  of  anniversary  week  by  the  birth  of  this 
Society,  whose  name,  for  the  first  eleven  years  of  its 
life,  was  the  Congregational  Library  Association. 

This  last  fact  indicates  the  idea  prominent  in  the 
minds  of  the  founders.  An  earnest,  united  effort  was 
needed  to  preserve  the  early  religious  literature  of 
New  England,  which  was  scattered  in  thousands  of 
garrets  and  was  fast  perishing.  So  thought  Parsons 
Cooke,  Julius  A.  Palmer,  Joseph  S.  Clark,  and  others 
who  launched  the  undertaking.  With  the  advent  of 
Rufus  Anderson  among  the  leading  spirits,  during 
the  first  year,  the  object  of  the  Association  was 
broadened.  A  charter  was  secured,  early  in  1854, 
which  announced  the  double  object  of  a  Congrega- 
tional Library  and  of  a  building  for  its  use  and  that 
of  charitable  societies. 

It  was  a  day  of  small  things.  Every  one  ac- 
knowledged the  importance  of  the  double  function 
for  which  the  Association  stood,  yet  very  few  were 
found  to  render  the  indispensable  aid.  Dr.  Joseph  S. 
Clark,  the  faithful  Corresponding  Secretary,  labored 
with  unwearied  diligence  to  stir  up  churches  and  in- 

5 


6  Wlstorical  Sftctcb 

dividuals  with  the  call,  "  Arise  and  build."  He  met 
with  fair  success  in  collecting  books  and  pamphlets, 
but  with  a  very  discouraging  reception  to  his  constant 
plea  for  the  money  needed  for  a  building. 

The  Old  South  Chapel  was  never  the  home  of 
the  Association ;  only  the  place  of  some  of  its  first 
annual  business  meetings.  In  1853,  a  small  room  in 
the  old  Tremont  Temple  was  rented  as  headquarters. 
This  was  soon  filled  to  overflowing  with  books  and 
pamphlets.  In  1857,  the  Association  bought  the 
Judge  Jackson  estate,  No.  23  Chauncy  Street.  It 
covered  about  4,500  feet  of  land,  cost  $25,000,  and 
was  mortgaged  for  $13,000.  During  that  year  the 
country  was  visited  by  its  greatest  financial  panic, 
and  the  fragile  bark  of  this  enterprise  was  all  but 
swamped  in  the  hurricane.  Two  generous  friends  of 
the  Association,  Alpheus  Hardy  and  Abner  King- 
man, came  to  the  rescue  and  gave  their  individual 
notes  to  secure  the  Association's  loan.  The  building 
was  held ;  but  nothing  could  be  spent  for  many  years 
upon  books  or  for  the  services  of  a  financial  agent. 
Dr.  Clark  gave  his  labors  freely,  but  just  as  they 
seemed  about  to  be  successful  came  the  storm  of 
civil  war,  and  hope  was  again  deferred. 

In  1864,  the  Association  secured  an  enlargement 
of  its  charter  and  a  change  of  name  to  that  which  it 
has  always  borne  since.  The  National  Council  held 
at  Boston  in  1865  heartily  endorsed  the  plan  for  a 
worthy  Congregational  House.  Rev.  Dr.  Isaac  P. 
Langworthy,  who  had  been  chosen  Secretary  and 
Librarian  after  Dr.  Clark's  death  in  1861,  employed 
his  time  and  energies  in  the  great  work  of  collecting 
the  necessary  funds. 


Wstorlcal  Sftetcb  7 

In  1867,  the  Chauncy  Street  house  was  sold  for 
a  little  more  than  double  the  purchase  price ;  rooms 
at  No.  40  Winter  Street  were  rented,  and  efforts 
for  an  appropriate  Congregational  House  were  more 
eagerly  prosecuted.  But  very  little  money  could  be 
secured  until  1870,  when  the  denomination  was 
aroused  to  celebrate  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  Among 
the  chief  objects  brought  into  prominence  was  the 
work  of  this  Association.  There  was  a  wide  if  not 
deep  response  from  churches  and  individuals ;  the 
impetus  of  the  movement  lasted  through  the  next 
two  years,  and  it  began  to  look  as  though  Congrega- 
tionalism would  secure  the  needed  centripetal  force. 
Then  came  in  swift  succession  three  staggering 
blows:  the  Chicago  fire  of  1871,  which  made  so 
great  a  shrinkage  in  Boston  capital ;  the  Boston  fire 
of  1872;  and  the  monetary  stringency  of  1873.  The 
best  that  could  be  done  was  to  secure  the  two  old 
buildings  at  the  corner  of  Beacon  and  Somerset 
Streets,  and  to  adapt  them  as  well  as  possible,  by 
various  changes  and  additions,  to  the  purposes  of 
the  Association. 

Dr.  Langworthy  was  the  leading  spirit  through 
all  this  period,  and  for  many  years  after;  to  him, 
more  than  to  any  other  one  man,  it  is  probable  that 
our  present  relative  prosperity  is  due.  The  varied 
machinery  set  in  motion  directly  or  indirectly  by  him 
produced  in  the  end  fully  a  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
and  in  1873  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  removing  the 
property  of  the  Association  from  Winter  Street  to 
the  "  Congregational   House." 

The  latter  half  of  our  fifty  years  is  so  fresh   in 


8  Historical  Shetcb 

memory  that  it  can  be  treated  summarily.  The  new 
location  brought  the  benevolent  societies  and  the 
library  together  for  the  first  time,  but  there  were 
new  difficulties  to  face.  The  building  had  cost  ^425,- 
000,  and  had  been  mortgaged  for  $200,000;  it  was 
soon  found  necessary  to  put  on  a  further  mortgage 
of  $50,000.  For  five  years  the  debt  remained  at 
$250,000,  with  no  prospect  of  its  reduction.  But  in 
1879,  mainly  through  the  earnest  efforts  and  liberal 
gifts  of  Samuel  D.  Warren  and  Rufus  S.  Frost, 
$30,000  was  secured  by  subscription,  and  thus  the 
sharpest  corner  was  turned,  and  the  last  nine  years 
of  Dr.  Langworthy's  life  were  relieved  from  his  chief 
anxiety  as  to  the  success  of  what  he  called  "  his  last 
and  tenderly  loved  work." 

This  faithful  servant  of  the  Association  passed 
away  in  1888  at  the  age  of  eighty-two.  At  that  time 
the  debt  had  been  reduced  from  $250,000  to  $184,- 
000.  In  1896,  when  it  had  been  brought  down  to 
$142,000,  the  entire  property  was  sold  for  nearly 
$600,000,  and  the  present  site.  Numbers  12  and  14 
Beacon  Street,  was  bought  for  $310,000.  The  build- 
ing itself,  which  was  dedicated  on  Forefathers'  Day 
in  1898,  cost  $325,000,  and  the  fact  is  worth  preserv- 
ino^  that  it  was  built  for  a  sum  somewhat  less  than 
the  original  estimates.  A  mortgage  of  $212,000  has 
already  been  reduced  to  $189,000.  The  various  be- 
nevolent societies  are  now  comfortably  housed  and 
in  convenient  working  relations  with  each  other. 
The  library  has  a  fine  modern  stack,  and  is  growing 
constantly  in  size  and  value.  Beginning  with  "  fifty- 
six  books  and  pamphlets"  in  1853,  it  has  now  more 
than  50,000  books  and  more  than  50,000  pamphlets. 


^Historical  Sftetcb  9 

besides  a  multitude  of  unbound  periodicals,  with 
many  manuscripts,  portraits,  and  other  relics  of  the 
past. 

Nearly  all  the  rooms  in  the  Congregational  House 
are  now  occupied,  several  of  them  by  outside  business 
parties.  But  if  the  debt  which  rests  upon  the  prop- 
erty could  be  cleared  away,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
estimate  the  gain  that  would  accrue  to  all  Congrega- 
tional work. 

This  gain  would  be  direct  as  w^ell  as  indirect. 
For  instance,  during  the  coming  year  we  shall  have 
to  expend  ^20,000  in  round  numbers  as  follows:  for 
interest  on  the  mortgage,  $7,000;  for  sinking  fund, 
$9,000;  rebates  of  rent  to  the  missionary  societies, 
$4,000.  But  if,  during  the  year,  one  or  more  large- 
hearted  Congregationalists  should  contribute  $185,- 
000  to  clear  off  the  debt,  the  whole  $20,000  would  be 
saved,  and  then  the  goal  aimed  at  from  the  beginning 
would  be  reached  —  a  Congregational  House  rent- 
free  to  all  the  Congregational  Societies. 


Am^rtran 

Congregational 

AH00riation 


Sremnnt  (StmpU 
Ma^  thipntH-fiftlj 


American    Congregational    Association 
Mr.  William   O.   Blaney,  President 

Boston    Congregational    Club 
Rev.   Charles    H.   Beale,  D.D.,  President 


MUSIC 
Shawmut  Church  Choir,   Boston 

Eliot  Church  Choir,  Newton 

Mr.   H.   M.   Dunham,  Director 


„.Prog 


ramme,,. 


Music 


Prayer  Rev.  A.  E.  Dunning,  D.D. 


Welcome  by  the  President 


Music 


Address  Rev.  George  A.  Gordon,  D.D. 


Music 


Benediction 


HYMN 

OGOD,   our  help  in  ages  past. 
Our  hope  for  years  to  come. 
Our   shelter  from   the   stormy   blast. 
And  our  eternal  home  ! 

Under  the  shadow  of  Thy  throne 

Thy  saints  have  dwelt  secure ; 
Sufficient  is  Thine  arm   alone. 
And  our  defence  is  sure. 

Before  the  hills  in  order  stood. 
Or  earth  received  her  frame. 

From  everlasting  Thou  art   God, 
To  endless  years  the  same. 

Thy  word  commands  our  flesh  to  dust, 
"Return,   ye  sons  of  men  ; " 

All  nations  rose  from  earth  at  first. 
And  turn  to  earth  again. 

Time,  like  an  ever-rolling  stream. 

Bears  all  its  sons  away; 
They  fly,   forgotten,   as  a  dream 

Dies  at  the  opening  day. 

O   God,   our  help  in  ages  past. 
Our  hope  for  years  to  come, 

Be  Thou  our  guard  while  troubles  last. 
And  our  eternal  home!      Amen. 


ADDRESS    OF    WELCOME 

In  behalf  of  the  American  Congregational  Asso- 
ciation, which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent,  it  be- 
comes my  duty  and  privilege  to  extend  to  you  a  most 
cordial  welcome,  and  I  also  desire  to  thank  you, 
Mr.  President  and  the  members  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Club,  for  uniting  with  us  in  celebrating  this, 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  our  organization. 

When  we  look  back  over  the  past  to  that  meeting 
which  was  held  in  the  Old  South  Chapel  fifty  years 
ago  today,  I  feel  we  should  return  thanks  to  Almighty 
God  for  raising  up  those  earnest,  Christian  men  who 
laid  the  foundation  of  what  has  since  become  a  power 
in  our  denomination.  It  might  be  of  interest  to  many 
who  are  present  were  I  to  review  the  history  of  our 
Association  and  tell  the  story  of  its  struggles  during 
the  early  days  of  its  existence,  but  time  will  not  allow 
me  to  do  so.  I  will  therefore  mention  only  a  few  of 
the  more  important  facts  and  refer  you  to  a  fuller 
statement  which  has  already  been  published. 

The  question  has  often  been  asked :  "  What  is 
the  American  Congregational  Association  ?  What  is 
the  object  of  the  Association  }  "  I  know  of  no  better 
answer  than  to  quote  from  Article  2  of  the  Consti- 
tution, which  states  that  "  the  object  of  this  Associa- 
tion shall  be  to  secure  the  erection,  in  the  city  of 
Boston,  of  a  Congregational  House  for  the  meetings 
of  the  body,  the  accommodation  of  its  library,  and  for 
the  furtherance  of  its  general  purposes;  to  found  and 

15 


i6  aODrces  of  TlClelcome 

perpetuate  a  library  of  books,  pamphlets,  and  manu- 
scripts, and  a  collection  of  portraits  and  relics  of  the 
past ;  and  to  do  whatever  else  shall  serve  to  illustrate 
Congregational  history  and  promote  the  general  in- 
terests of  the  Congregational  churches." 

The  need  for  such  an  organization  was  felt  among 
our  churches  as  early  as  1843,  and  in  1847  Pro- 
fessor Edwards,  of  Andover,  published  an  article  in 
which  he  urged  the  importance  and  practicability  of 
a  "  public  library  and  whatever  else  would  serve  to 
illustrate  the  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  history  of  New 
England  theology."  It  was  not,  however,  until 
May  25,  1853,  that  the  movement  took  definite  shape 
and  the  Association  formed.  Like  many  great  enter- 
prises, it  had  a  small  beginning,  and  one  room  in 
Tremont  Temple  was  found  of  sufficient  size  in 
which  to  hold  the  meetings  of  its  members  and  to 
accommodate  its  library  of  fifty-six  books  and  pam- 
phlets; but  it  soon  outgrew  these  quarters,  and  in 
1857  ^^  estate  on  Chauncy  Street  was  purchased  for 
the  sum  of  $25,000,  upon  which  a  small  payment  was 
made. 

This  building  was  occupied  during  the  next  ten 
years,  when  the  property  was  sold  and  temporary 
quarters  were  secured  on  Winter  Street,  where  the 
Association  remained  until  it  moved  into  the  Con- 
gregational House,  at  the  corner  of  Beacon  and 
Somerset  Streets.  It  was  then  thought  that  the 
Association  had  found  a  permanent  home,  but  twenty 
years  later  the  increase  in  value  of  the  land  upon 
which  it  stood  made  it  imperative  either  to  erect  a 
modern  building  or  to  sell  the  property  and  move  to 
a  less  expensive  locality. 


BDDress  ot  TIClelccme 


17 


After  much  discussion  by  the  members,  it  was 
finally  decided  to  adopt  the  latter  course,  and  in 
1896,  through  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Samuel  B.  Capen, 
to  whom  the  Association  owes  a  lasting  debt  of  grat- 
itude, the  property  was  disposed  of  and  the  estate 
was  purchased  where  our  present  building  stands,  "  a 
building,"  to  quote  the  words  of  my  predecessor,  the 
late  Mr.  Samuel  Johnson,  at  its  dedication,  "  of  which 
every  member  is  proud,  and  one  that  will  be  known 
the  world  over." 

Yes,  we  are  proud  of  our  building,  and  we  can 
say  that  it  is  known  the  world  over  as  the  home  of 
Congregationalism,  for  from  this  center  are  sent  forth 
the  messengers  of  our  faith  with  the  command,  "  Go 
ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature." 

Surely  the  seed  sown  fifty  years  ago  fell  into  good 
ground  and  has  multiplied  and  increased,  not  thirty, 
or  sixty,  or  one  hundredfold,  but  one  thousandfold. 
Our  little  library  of  fifty  volumes  now  numbers  fifty 
thousand,  and  the  value  of  our  real  estate  today  is 
more  than  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

I  regret  to  state,  however,  that  there  is  a  debt 
upon  the  property,  and  while  it  is  gradually  being 
reduced,  it  should,  for  the  credit  of  our  denomination, 
be  paid  at  once.  It  is  not  my  purpose,  neither  is  it 
the  time  nor  the  place,  to  make  an  appeal  for  assist- 
ance, but  if  there  are  any  present  who  believe  that  it 
is  a  "  disgrace  to  die  rich,"  I  ask  them  to  remember 
that  here  is  an  opportunity  where  a  generous  dona- 
tion would  result  in  much  good,  for  it  would  not  only 
relieve  the  Association  of  a  burden,  but  it  would 
benefit  every  benevolent  society  which  occupies  the 
building. 


i8  BODress  of  TUflclcome 

And  now,  as  we  pass  the  fiftieth  milestone  in  our 
history,  rejoicing  in  what  has  been  accomplished  in 
the  past,  may  we  not  look  forward  with  hope  to  the 
future,  believing  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when 
we  can  say,  there  stands  the  home  of  our  denomina- 
tion, free  from  debt  or  incumbrance,  a  monument  to 
the  founders  of  our  Association,  representing  the 
progress  of  Congregationalism  and  the  principles  of 
the   Pilgrim  and  the   Puritan  fathers. 


DR.   GORDON'S    ADDRESS 


"  Remember  the  days  of  old, 
Consider  the  years  of  many  generations: 
Ask  thy  father,  and  he  will  show  thee; 
Thine  elders  and  they  will  tell  thee." 

"  Thence  to  the  famous  orators  repair." 
"  To  sage  philosophy  next  lend  thine  ear." 

"Remember  them  that  had  the  rule  over  you,  which  spake 
unto  you  the  word  of  God,  and  considering  the  issue  of  their 
life  imitate  their  faith." 

"  After  these  things  I  saw,  and  behold,  a  great  multitude 
that  no  man  could  number." 

"  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday  and  today,  yea  and 
forever." 

"  The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God, 
and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  with  you  all." 


DENOMINATIONAL    MEMORIES    AND 
INSPIRATIONS 

George   A.   Gordon 

The  American  people  delight  in  commemora- 
tions. The  most  radical  race  in  the  modern  world, 
they  thus  disclose  a  native,  a  precious,  and  let  us 
hope  an  indestructible,  conservatism.  The  nation 
celebrated  with  serious  joy  the  centennial  of  its 
organization,  and  thirteen  years  earlier,  the  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, thus  lending  its  high  sanction  to  the  habit  of 
our  people,  and,  by  national  example,  encouraging 
them  in  the  cultivation  of  an  ever  larger  memory, 
and  an  ever  juster  appreciation  of  the  past.  Time 
subdues  passion,  induces  sane  judgment,  and  brings 
about  great  reconciliations.  In  1901  Dartmouth 
College  fittingly  observes  the  centennial  of  the  grad- 
uation of  Daniel  Webster,  and  hardly  a  voice  is  heard 
save  in  praise  of  that  monumental  American.  In 
1902  Hartford  commemorates  the  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  birth  of  Horace  Bushnell,  and  all  good 
men  of  all  shades  of  belief  unite  in  grateful  recog- 
nition of  his  "great  genius,  his  great  character,  and 
his  great  services  to  mankind."  And  while  we  are 
gathered  here  for  our  own  specific  purpose,  another 
American  of  genius,  and  of  enduring  fame,  is  receiv- 
ing the  honor  that  is  his  due.  Ralph  Waldo  Emer- 
son belongs  to  the  American  people;  he  has  taken 
his  place  among  the  greater  forces  for  good  in  our 
national  life.  When  one  thinks  of  these  three  men, 
one  must  exclaim  with  the   Psalmist : 


22  2)enomlnatlonal  /Dbcmorics  anO  Ifnsplratlons 

"  To  him   that  made  great  lights  : 
For  his  loving-kindness  endureth  forever." 

This  instinct  for  looking  backward  is  an  immedi- 
ate inheritance  from  the  British  race.  A  century 
passes  from  the  hour  when  Robert  Burns  first  saw 
the  light,  from  the  hour  when  he  closed  his  glorious 
eyes  upon  the  sun,  and  Scotland  takes  occasion  to 
appreciate  the  gift  of  God  in  her  greatest  genius. 
A  century  passes  from  the  day  that  Edmund  Burke 
ended  his  career  of  greatness,  and  the  nation  that  he 
served  with  a  purity  unsurpassed,  and  with  a  richness 
and  splendor  of  power  unrivaled,  recalls  with  honor 
his  undying  fame.  A  thousand  years  pass  away  from 
the  death  of  the  first  English  king,  and  again  the 
English  race  rise  and  record  their  homage  to  the 
name  of  Alfred  the  Great. 

This  instinct  for  commemorations,  so  potent  in 
our  people,  so  potent  in  the  race  from  which  Ameri- 
cans first  drew  their  being,  is  a  law  of  human  nature, 
and  its  strength  is  a  sign  of  the  stability  of  nations. 
Twenty-one  years  ago  all  enlightened  peoples  united 
with  Germany  in  the  recognition  of  the  four  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Martin  Luther; 
and  seventeen  years  earlier  the  civilized  world  did 
honor  with  Florence  to  the  immortal  name  of  Dante. 
Tennyson  spoke  for  contemporary  humanity  when 
he  sang  of  this  event: 

"  King,  that  hast  reign'd  six  hundred  years,  and  grown 
In  power,  and  ever  growest,  since  thine  own 
Fair  Florence  honoring  thy  nativity, 
Thy  Florence  now  the  crown  of  Italy, 
Hath  sought  the  tribute  of  a  verse  from  me, 
I,  wearing  but  the  garland  of  a  day. 
Cast  at  thy  feet  one  flower  that  fades  away." 


Denominational  Memories  anO  ITnepiratione  23 

Let  the  good  habit  of  periodic  retrospection  grow; 
let  it  become  fixed.  We  are  fitted  to  entertain  great 
hopes  only  as  we  cherish  great  memories ;  even  as 
the  rower  sits  with  his  face  toward  the  stern  of  his 
boat  that  he  may  drive  the  prow  forward.  In  order 
to  be  trustworthy,  the  modern  man,  especially,  must 
be  Janus-faced ;  one  face  looking  back,  the  other 
looking  forward,  one  to  behold  and  conserve  the  high 
spirit  of  the  past,  the  other  to  greet  the  new  day, 
the  new  opportunity,  and  to  employ  the  purified  and 
extended  vision  of  the  generations  that  are  gone,  in 
the  service  of  the  generations  that  are,  and  that  are 
to  be.  There  is  but  one  kind  of  retrospect  to  be 
deplored,  that  represented  by  a  certain  famous  person 
fleeing  from  the  cities  of  the  plain.  There  must  be 
no  consecration  of  the  limitation,  the  failure,  the 
weakness,  the  shame  of  the  past.  History  holds 
within  its  vast  domain  many  a  Sodom  and  Gomor- 
rah, many  a  consecrated  falsehood,  many  a  gray- 
headed  superstition,  many  eonian  outrages  upon 
faith,  many  millennial  inhumanities.  Infatuation  still 
consecrates  these  cities  of  the  plain,  and  the  pillars 
of  salt,  the  petrified  mind  and  heart,  remain  the  mel- 
ancholy monuments  on  all  the  highways  of  existence. 
Tonight  we  build  the  sepulchres  of  the  fathers,  we 
garnish  the  tombs  of  the  prophets ;  but  we  do  so 
only  in  the  recognition  of  the  Eternal  God  in  their 
humanity,  only  in  obedience  to  the  supreme  and 
enduring  prophet,  Jesus  Christ,  only  in  the  faith 
and  service  of  the   Holy  Ghost. 

We  celebrate  today  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
American  Congregational  Association.  The  history 
of  the  Association  has  been  written  in  a  manner  that 


24  Denominational  /iBcmories  anO  Unepirations 

admits  of  no  improvement  at  my  hands.  That  his- 
tory is  accessible  to  all.  In  looking  for  a  theme  suit- 
able to  this  occasion  I  have  been  led  by  the  spirit 
of  the  Association  as  indicated  in  these  memorable 
words  of  Professor  Park :  "  Let  us  establish  in  this 
City  of  the  Pilgrims,  a  Pilgrim  Hall,  that  shall  con- 
tain the  writings  of  our  fathers,  and  of  our  brethren, 
and  of  our  successors,  and  let  its  walls  preserve  the 
portraits  of  our  Cottons,  and  our  Mathers,  and  our 
Hookers,  and  our  Emmonses,  and  our  Paysons,  and 
our  Hallocks,  and  our  Beechers."  The  Association 
has  its  vision  upon  the  whole  denomination,  and  the 
Congregational  House  is  its  home,  the  emblem  of  its 
interests  and  ideals,  the  guide  to  great  memories  and 
to  vast  hopes.  My  subject  is  thus  given  in  the 
meaning  of  this  hour  and  my  statement  of  it  is, 
Denominational  Memories  a7id  Inspirations. 

The  building  which  is  the  home  of  the  Associ- 
ation reminds  us  of  the  polity  of  our  churches.  It 
is  simple,  serviceable,  in  keeping  with  the  plain  and 
solid  character  of  our  people.  A  strange  silence  has 
fallen  upon  us  as  speakers  for  our  polity.  The  Pres- 
byterian is  not  silent,  or  if  he  is,  it  is  because  he 
thinks  no  one  can  question  the  superiority  of  Pres- 
byterianism  to  all  other  forms  of  ecclesiasticism. 
The  Methodist  is  not  silent,  or  if  he  is,  it  is  because 
the  thunder  of  his  devotion  in  God's  name  to  the 
deepest  needs  of  the  nation  has  drowned  even  his 
voice.  The  Episcopalian  is  not  silent,  or  if  he  is, 
it  is  because  he  claims  with  serene  complacency  that 
his  church  is  the  church ;  and,  of  course,  if  that  is 
true,  there  can  be  no  other.      It   is  a  strange  thing 


©enomtnatlonal  IWbcmoxice  and  Unsplrations  25 

that  has  come  to  pass  in  this  citadel  of  the  Puritan. 
While  other  denominations  declare  through  frank 
and  honorable  speech  the  superiority  of  their  forms 
of  government,  or  assume  without  discussion  as  an 
axiom  that  superiority,  it  has  somehow  come  about 
that  among  the  successors  of  the  Puritans  it  is 
deemed  narrow,  or  trivial,  or  reviving  dead  issues,  or 
disturbing  to  the  growing  unity  of  the  churches, 
or  as  exhibiting  a  deplorable  polemic  instinct,  or  as 
savoring  of  something  almost  vulgar  for  a  Congre- 
gationalist  to  enter  a  plea  for  his  order.  It  is  con- 
ceded by  our  friends,  the  enemy,  that  we  have  had 
a  great  history,  and  it  is  claimed  by  the  same  class 
of  persons  that  our  work  is  done.  Many  among  us 
have  been  so  flattered  by  the  praise  as  to  become  in- 
sensible to  the  dismay  of  the  judgment  upon  our 
future.  Meanwhile  there  are  other  and  more  promis- 
ing signs.  There  are  among  us  younger  men  of 
Puritan  fiber  who  do  not  think  it  narrow,  or  trivial, 
or  reviving  dead  issues,  or  as  showing  a  lamentable 
polemic  spirit,  or  as  savoring  of  something  almost 
vulgar,  or  as  disturbing  in  the  churches  any  other 
kind  of  unity  than  that  which  has  its  type  in  the  pro- 
gressive assimilation  of  the  lamb  inside  the  lion,  that 
is,  of  inducing  an  attack  of  arrested  ecclesiastical 
digestion,  to  speak  frankly,  to  plead  manfully,  and 
to  declare  in  terms  of  reason  and  fact  the  high  claims 
of  the  polity  of  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  our  polity  lacks  com- 
pactness, that  it  has  little  organization,  that  it  is, 
therefore,  at  a  disadvantage  when  compared  with 
other  ecclesiastical  forms,  for  purposes  of  self-preser- 
vation and  reproduction.     This  criticism,  when  taken 


26  Denominational  Memories  an&  ITnepirations 

in  connection  with  the  two  great  facts  of  the  pro- 
gressive character  of  modern  life  and  the  democratic 
character  of  American  institutions,  is  a  mistaken 
criticism. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  a  marvel  of  com- 
pact organization.  In  certain  countries,  and  among 
peoples  of  a  certain  grade  of  intellectual  develop- 
ment, this  is  an  advantage.  In  the  modern  world  it 
is  an  enormous  disadvantage.  Churches  need  con- 
tinuous reformation ;  they  need  to  be  in  perpetual 
readjustment  to  the  life  of  the  people.  The  tragedy 
of  organized  Christianity  is  the  steadfast  refusal,  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  admit 
reform.  The  reformation  became  a  movement  out- 
side the  Catholic  Church.  An  organization,  less 
complete  and  severe,  might  have  averted  the  calam- 
ity of  disruption. 

The  same  remark  may  be  made,  although  not 
with  equal  force,  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
Its  organization  does  not  indeed  close  its  doors  to 
the  legitimate  influence  of  the  modern  world.  But 
its  order  does  hold  it  in  alienation  from  the  demo- 
cratic sympathies  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
The  Episcopal  Church  is  the  child  of  Imperial 
Rome;  it  is  the  church  of  the  class-organization  of 
society.  It  is  native  to  England,  with  her  king  and 
her  aristocracy,  with  her  ritual  of  royalty  and  her 
love  of  social  distinctions. 

The  Anglican  church  in  America  confronts  an 
enormous  initial  disadvantage.  That  disadvantage 
may  be  overcome.  It  has  been  overcome  in  many 
signal  instances.  Where  it  has  not  been  overcome 
it  has  been  mitigated  by  a  shining  record  of  service 


2>cnominattonal  /iftcmories  an&  Unsplratfons  27 

to  the  community.  Honor  is  due  to  brave  men  for 
triumph  over  initial  disadvantages.  The  name  of 
Phillips  Brooks  leaps  to  our  lips  at  the  mention  in 
this  city  of  the  church  that  he  honored  with  his 
great  ministry.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that, 
whether  with  reason  or  without  it,  Phillips  Brooks 
appeared  in  the  Episcopal  communion  as  a  wonder. 
How  he  could  do  what  he  did,  how  he  could  be 
what  he  was,  and  yet  remain  an  Episcopalian,  con- 
tinued to  the  end  of  his  existence  to  be  a  kind  of 
mystery.  The  mystery  of  a  mighty  democrat  in  an 
aristocratic  ecclesiasticism  was  part  of  the  enchant- 
ment of  his  great  career.  The  resolution  of  the 
mystery  is  that  Phillips  Brooks  was  a  man  of  genius, 
and  of  irresistible  popular  power;  and  as  in  all  simi- 
lar cases,  the  institution  gave  way  to  the  man,  and 
not  the  man  to  the  institution.  Like  almost  all  the 
broad  men  in  the  Episcopal  Church  in  America, 
Phillips  Brooks  was  the  descendant  of  Puritan  an- 
cestors ;  he  was  born  and  bred  in  this  city  of  the 
Puritans ;  his  nature  was  alive  with  the  finest  tradi- 
tions and  the  loftiest  ideals  of  a  democratic  commun- 
ity; and  he  took  over  into  the  communion  in  which 
he  chose  to  do  his  work,  this  precious  inheritance 
and  the  issues  of  his  training  in  American  society. 
The  Episcopal  communion  has  a  right  to  the  glory 
of  his  career;  it  was  that  branch  of  the  church  of 
Christ  that  gave  him  his  opportunity. 

But  those  charged  with  the  perpetuation  of  the 
polity  and  the  principles  of  the  Pilgrims  and  the 
Puritans  will  cherish  a  strong  delusion  if  they  sup- 
pose that  Phillips  Brooks  is  an  accepted  exponent  of 
the  genius  of  Episcopacy.     For  us,  after  the  widest 


28  Denomtnatlonal  jfflbcmorics  anD  Ifnsplratlons 

recognition  of  the  great  and  honorable  service  ren- 
dered to  the  kingdom  of  God  in  that  communion, 
Episcopacy  as  an  ecclesiastical  system  reduces  itself 
to  two  uncompromising  denials ;  first,  the  denial  that 
our  ministry  is  a  valid  ministry ;  second,  the  denial 
that  our  churches  are  Christian  churches.  Our  min- 
isters are  not  recognized  as  such  in  the  fellowship  of 
the  Episcopal  ministry.  When  members  leave  our 
order  for  the  Episcopal  order,  letters  of  dismission 
and  of  recommendation  are  not  desired.  These  per- 
sons confess  Christ  again,  as  if  for  the  first  time. 
Their  confession  of  the  Master  in  our  order,  and 
their  ecclesiastical  connection  with  us  do  not  count. 
When  communicants  come  to  us  from  the  Episcopal 
Church,  as  they  often  do,  a  letter  is  given  not  of 
dismission  and  of  recommendation,  but  of  assurance 
that  the  wanderer  is  a  member  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.  Thus  our  ministry  is  ignored; 
thus  our  Christianity  is  ignored.  Ecclesiastical  rec- 
ognition either  of  our  ministry  or  of  our  Christian 
laity  on  the  part  of  the  Episcopal  Church  there  is 
none. 

Against  all  this  the  broad  churchman  is  indig- 
nant. He  is,  however,  powerless.  The  genius  of 
his  order  compels  him  to  obey,  overrules  his  fine 
instincts,  disregards  his  breadth,  ignores  his  sweet 
reasonableness,  and  turns  him  into  a  supporter  of 
this  strange  system.  As  one  has  said,  the  abomina- 
ble rule  must  be  obeyed.  The  prevailing  church- 
man does  not  admit  that  the  rule  is  abominable.  He 
is  here  to  contest  with  the  Pilgrim  and  the  Puritan, 
and  if  he  can  in  honor  do  it,  to  take  away  their  name 
and  their  nation.      He  knows  that  with  the  advent 


Denominational  /Bbemorics  anD  fnsplrations  29 

of  those  heroic  men  on  these  shores,  a  new  era  was 
opened  in  the  political  and  religious  history  of  man- 
kind. The  democratic  church  prepared  the  way  for 
the  democratic  state ;  and  the  democratic  state  needs 
the  support  of  the  democratic  church.  The  aggres- 
sive Episcopalian  is  swift  to  note  this,  and  his  im- 
patience with  our  veneration  for  our  Congregational 
ancestors  finds  a  not  unsuitable  expression  in  the 
frank  exclamation  of  one  vigorous  churchman,  "  In- 
stead of  the  Pilgrims  landing  on  Plymouth  rock, 
would  to  heaven  that  Plymouth  rock  had  landed  on 
them ! " 

For  the  admission  of  new  light,  and  for  closeness 
to  the  order  of  our  national  existence,  Congrega- 
tionalism has  an  immense  advantage.  The  local 
church  is  independent.  It  chooses  its  own  minister, 
its  own  officers ;  it  determines  what  its  covenant  or 
creed  shall  be.  It  may  open  its  gates  to  the  east  and 
to  the  west,  to  the  north  and  to  the  south.  It  is 
shackled  by  no  man,  it  is  hampered  by  none,  it  need 
be  kept  from  progress  by  none.  It  may,  to  be  sure, 
abuse  its  independence,  and  thus  fall  out  of  fellow- 
ship. But  the  wise  and  resolute  use  of  its  inde- 
pendence will  not  bring  about  that  result.  And  so 
it  has  come  to  pass  that  with  only  here  and  there 
a  shock,  our  Congregational  churches  have  passed 
safely  through  the  greatest  intellectual  revolution 
known  to  Christian  history.  They  have  kept  the 
faith ;  they  have  kept  faith  and  pace  with  progress ; 
they  have  kept  faith  with  one  another.  Today  they 
stand  in  unbroken  and  in  closer  fellowship,  rejoicing 
in  the  freedom  and  the  responsibility  of  the  autono- 
mous  church,  rejoicing  more  and  more  in  the  com- 


30  Denominational  /IRemortes  anD   Unspirations 

munion  and  cooperation  of  autonomous  churches. 
The  stars  have  their  several  and  separate  orbits.  In 
these  they  go  their  several  and  separate  ways.  They 
shine  in  these  paths  of  freedom ;  they  move  in  these 
highways  of  independence.  And  out  of  this  inde- 
pendence, because  it  remains  unabused,  comes  the 
vast  and  glorious  fellowship  of  the  stars,  the  clusters 
and  galaxies  that  constitute  the  milky  way,  that  sym- 
bolize the  communion  of  the  saints  in  glory  everlast- 
ing, that  symbolize  the  bold  independence  and  the 
shining  brotherhood  of  the  churches  of  our  order. 

No  church  can  do  its  best  work  that  is  not  in 
accord  with  the  genius  of  the  people,  that  is  not 
in  harmony  with  the  genius  of  our  political  institu- 
tions. The  second  advantage  of  our  polity  is  equally 
impressive.  We  are  open  to  new  light,  and  we  are 
close  to  the  national  heart.  The  people  of  the 
United  States  are  democratic  in  history,  in  feeling, 
in  institutions,  in  all  their  sympathies  and  in  all  their 
ideals.  The  priestly  church,  the  aristocratic  church, 
is  here  under  immense  initial  embarrassment.  The 
church  that  founds  its  ministry  upon  manhood,  that 
describes  itself  as  a  company  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
Christ,  whose  aims  are  all  for  the  equalization  of 
men  before  the  law,  before  the  human  conscience,  in 
human  feeling,  in  social  custom,  and  in  the  presence 
of  the  Infinite,  whose  spirit  is  one  of  intense  and 
abounding  humanity,  must  possess  an  unmeasured 
initial  advantage  with  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  If  we  do  not  succeed  it  is  not  because  of 
our  polity.  If  we  fail  to  advance,  our  ecclesiastical 
order  is  not  to  blame.  It  is  because  we  are  un- 
worthy of   our  history ;   it  is   because  we  have  for- 


Denominational  /Iftemorles  anC>   Unspirations  31 

gotten  the  price  by  which  our  freedom  was  bought; 
it  is  because  we  are  blind  to  the  issue  that  confronted 
the  Pilgrims,  blind  to  the  meaning  of  their  struggle 
and  to  the  magnificence  of  their  victory.  They 
fought  for  the  primacy  of  the  people,  for  the  ascend- 
ency in  all  human  affairs  of  the  human  being,  for  the 
sovereignty  of  man  under  the  sovereignty  of  God. 
If  we  fail  it  will  be,  not  because  of  a  poor  polity, 
but  because  of  deficient  manhood;  not  for  want  of 
better  organization,  but  for  want  of  wider  sympathies; 
not  because  we  are  without  bishops,  but  because  we 
are  without  men.  Indeed,  we  are  confronted  by  our 
greatest  opportunity.  In  the  stern  days  that  are 
upon  us,  in  the  terrible  epoch  of  the  trial  of  strength 
between  capital  and  labor,  there  is  an  immeasurable 
opportunity  for  the  church  that  appeals  to  man  as 
man,  that  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  that  claims 
Lazarus  the  beggar  as  a  son  of  God,  that  reminds 
Dives  that  he  is  nothing  more,  and  that  seeks  by  the 
Gospel  of  the  Divine  Man  to  lift  human  society  into 
the  mood  and  power  of  brotherhood. 

In  the  Congregational  House  is  the  denomina- 
tional paper,  the  special  guardian  of  the  polity  and 
the  principles  of  the  Pilgrims  and  the  Puritans.  In 
my  judgment,  and  I  am  not  a  stockholder  or  a 
director  in  it,  that  paper  is  one  of  the  broadest 
and  best  conducted  denominational  journals  in  the 
country.  A  denominational  paper  is  often  provok- 
ing ;  it  is  provoking  as  the  preacher  is  now  and  then 
provoking.  There  is  little  opportunity  to  reply,  and 
the  journal  and  the  preacher  always  have  the  last 
word.     In  the  expression  of  his  thoughts,  and  in  run- 


32  Denominational  Memories  an5  flnsplratlone 

ning  counter  to  the  current  of  their  convictions,  the 
preacher  often  seems  to  possess  an  unfair  advantage 
over  his  people.  The  same  is  true  of  the  paper. 
On  the  whole,  however,  the  honest  and  fearless 
preacher  is  forgiven  and  loved  in  spite  of  his  ex- 
asperating opinions ;  and  the  courageous  and  upright 
journal  is  honored  and  supported  notwithstanding 
its  occasional  apparent  perversity.  Think  what  the 
pulpit  would  be  if  it  should  sink  into  a  mere  echo 
of  the  pews.  It  would  be  a  confusion  worse  than 
Babel ;  for  there  is  less  agreement  in  belief  among 
laymen  than  among  ministers.  It  would  be  a  dis- 
grace equal  to  that  of  Judas ;  for  its  salutation  of 
conformity  would  be  but  the  kiss  of  the  betrayer. 
If  we  had  no  voice  for  the  current  thought  of  the 
denomination,  no  influence  to  reach,  in  the  name  of 
our  order,  the  homes  of  our  people,  no  medium  for 
the  expression  of  the  new  ideas  and  the  old,  no  force 
for  the  creation  of  a  common  sentiment,  and  a  pre- 
vailing public  opinion,  no  organ  to  represent  our 
history,  cherish  our  traditions,  recall  our  great  names, 
and  mediate  between  those  who  are  a  venturesome 
vanguard  and  those  who  constitute  a  lagging  rear- 
guard, we  should  be  poor  indeed.  Our  denomina- 
tional paper  is  less  in  need  of  our  appreciation  and 
support  than  we  are  of  a  just  apprehension  of  the 
indispensableness  of  its  service. 

The  religious  newspaper  represents  the  large 
body  of  ephemeral  but  powerful  writings  which 
come,  like  the  snows  of  winter,  to  whiten  for  a  sea- 
son the  fields  of  human  society,  which  melt  and 
vanish  only  to  leave  the  soil  richer  and  prepared  for 
a  more  abundant  harvest.     Much  may  be  said  for  the 


S>enomlnatlcnal  /Dbcmorlcs  anD  llnspirations  ^^ 

word  that  perishes  in  the  utterance  of  it,  for  the  ser- 
mon or  pamphlet  or  article  or  paper  which  is  read 
but  once,  which  yet  enters  into  contemporary  man- 
hood and  womanhood  as  illumination  and  inspiration. 
The  vast  majority  of  writers,  in  all  departments  of 
letters,  long  survive  their  books.  Their  lives  would 
be  sorrowfully  brief  if  this  were  not  the  case.  I  do 
not  see  why  religious  writers  should  grieve  unduly 
over  this  situation.  The  romance  that  this  year  sells 
by  the  one  hundred  thousand  in  another  year  will 
be  utterly  dead.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
issues  of  the  press  in  fiction  have  an  existence  about 
equal  in  length  and  in  unhappy  power  to  that  of  the 
black  flies  in  the  Adirondacks.  If  our  writings  in 
behalf  of  the  faith  are  true  and  worthy,  if  they  are 
in  any  degree,  and  for  a  short  time,  forces  in  the 
intellectual  and  moral  training  of  the  people,  why 
should  we  mourn  their  brief  existence  ?  They  come 
like  the  song-birds,  and  like  them  they  leave;  but 
the  memory  of  their  clear  and  ringing  notes  abides 
to  strengthen  men  and  women  at  the  great  and  seri- 
ous business  of  living.  Literature  exists  for  life. 
Life  is  the  ultimate  wonder,  the  final  glory  of  the 
world,  and  it  elects  to  immortality  only  an  infinitesi- 
mal part  of  the  really  precious  and  temporarily  in- 
dispensable in  literature.  It  is  no  discouragement 
to  the  lover  and  servant  of  life  that  his  article,  essay, 
sermon,  or  book  cannot  last.  If  only  it  may  serve 
for  an  hour  or  a  season,  let  it  pass.  It  has  done  its 
work,  it  has  gone  into  the  soul  of  the  living  world 
that  cannot  die. 

It  would  be  ill  with  us  had  we  no  contemporary 
literature.     Darwin  dies,  but  Darwin's  science  lives. 


34  Denominational  Memories  anD  Unspirations 

Philosophers  die,  but  the  meaning  of  the  universe,  to 
whose  unfoldment  they  made  their  several  contribu- 
tions, continues  to  grow  and  to  engage  the  human 
intellect.  Theologians  die,  but  the  work  of  giving 
order  and  vindication  to  the  great  ideas  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  to  which  they  devoted  their  power,  lives 
on.  In  all  but  a  few  instances,  the  written  word 
dies ;  but  that  which  every  true  written  word  serves 
cannot  die.  The  ideal  interest  of  man,  the  kingdom 
of  God  in  time,  is  great  enough  to  call  forth  our  best 
utterance  whether  spoken  or  written ;  and  we  may 
leave  it  with  our  King  to  determine  how  long  our 
words  shall  last,  while  we  console  ourselves  with  the 
mighty  conviction  that  we  stand  as  servants  and  as 
heirs  in  a  kingdom  that  cannot  be  shaken. 

In  the  Congregational  Building  is  the  library  of 
the  Association.  It  represents  a  labor  of  love  in  its 
growth  from  fifty -six  books  to  more  than  fifty  thou- 
sand that  should  not  be  forgotten.  It  has  been 
served  in  love  and  reverence  from  its  origin  to  the 
present  hour.  It  is  rich  in  the  peculiar  literary  treas- 
ure of  our  order,  and  it  contains  an  increasing  col- 
lection of  rare  things  gathered  from  the  ends  of  the 
earth  by  pious  hands  and  brought  hither  for  our  in- 
struction. The  writings  of  our  New  England  fathers 
are  here.  A  great  body  of  denominational  literature 
is  here.  And  if  it  is  today  little  read,  if  it  seems  to 
have  little  relation  to  the  duty  and  the  peril  of  the 
hour,  if  a  strange  absence  of  vitality  appears  in  the 
thoughts  and  literary  forms  of  our  predecessors,  let 
us  be  sure  that  this  will  not  always  be  the  case. 
One  interest  is  certain  to  invest  more  and  more  these 
writings,  and  that  is  the  human  interest.     Thy  dead 


Denominational  jflRemorles  anO  Unsplratlons  35 

men  shall  live  again.  For  those  who  look  upon 
these  New  England  fields  and  hills  as  invested  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years  with  the  heroic  human- 
ity of  their  ancestors,  who  see  the  image  of  kingly 
men  and  queenly  women  burning  in  the  sun  that 
lights  the  world  today,  who  hear  in  the  murmur  of 
the  brook  and  the  sigh  of  the  river  the  voices  that 
once  made  glad  the  holy  place  of  the  Most  High, 
and  who  carry  into  the  depth  of  nature  and  into  the 
contemporary  world  of  man  the  sense  of  that  pathetic, 
heroic,  majestic  past,  these  dead  books  will  live  again. 
It  would  be  sad  indeed  if  while  we  have  imagination 
and  humanity  enough  to  renew  out  of  mud  tablets, 
strange  stones,  and  often  the  mere  debris  of  art,  the 
vision  of  vanished  races  and  civilizations  we  should 
be  unmindful  of  the  great  human  world  whose  power 
is  still  upon  us,  whose  beauty  is  the  beauty  of  the 
Lord  our  God.  An  hour  in  the  library  of  the  Asso- 
ciation is  like  an  hour  in  the  courts  of  our  God. 
The  silence  is  a  message  to  the  soul ;  and  those 
shelves  with  their  books  tell  of  large  and  heroic  in- 
tellectual power.  They  tell  of  a  New  England  in 
which  plain  living  was  accompanied  by  the  zest  of 
high  thinking,  and  of  generations  of  men  and  women 
whose  hardship  and  poverty  were  glorified  in  the 
light  of  an  Eternal  ideal.  Love  and  marriage,  birth 
and  death,  the  awakening  to  the  glory  of  true  man- 
hood and  womanhood,  the  sad  yet  heroic  struggle, 
the  tragedy  of  reverse  and  despair,  the  victory  and 
the  joy  of  faith ;  the  dark  worlds  of  sorrow  transfig- 
ured in  the  burning  light  of  Christian  intelligence  lie 
behind  those  silent  and  mournful  memorials.  For 
imagination   and  humanity  they  are  alive,  and  like 


36  Dcnomfnatfonal  /Dbemorfes  anO  fnepirations 

the  third  rail,  dangerous  to  the  unwise.  Hither  let 
us  come  to  read  a  little,  and  to  think  and  dream  and 
love  much.  The  mood  of  veneration  for  the  past 
will  help  to  create  insight  and  courage  for  the  pres- 
ent. The  Christ  who  departed  most  from  the  Old 
Testament  understood  it  best,  and  went  back  to  God 
with  one  of  its  great  words  upon  his  lips :  "  Father, 
into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit."  The  true 
Christian  leader  is  he  who  works  in  the  sense  of 
the  God  who  was,  and  who  is,  and  who  is  to  come. 
In  the  library  we  look  upon  shining  names. 
There  are  here  names  of  laymen  known  all  over  the 
land  for  their  character  and  service.  The  portrait 
gallery  should  be  enriched  with  paintings  in  oil  of 
these  leading  laymen.  It  would  be  an  enduring 
denominational  inspiration  to  look  upon  the  faces 
of  Alpheus  Hardy  and  Samuel  Warren,  E.  S.  Tobey 
and  Ezra  Farnsworth,  Samuel  Johnson  and  Henry 
Woods,  and  of  other  men  of  similar  strength  of 
character  and  reach  of  influence.  The  power  of  the 
layman  is  a  chief  distinction  in  our  order.  The 
prophethood,  the  priesthood,  and  the  kinghood  of  all 
believers  is  the  heart  of  our  faith.  And  when  we 
think  of  the  churches,  and  of  the  societies  that  are 
the  extension  of  their  spirit  and  power  in  the  coun- 
try, we  are  reflecting  upon  organizations  that  have 
come  largely  from  the  brain  of  our  laymen,  we  are 
regarding  organizations  whose  operation  is  largely 
dependent  upon  the  wisdom,  and  wholly  dependent 
upon  the  beneficence  of  laymen.  When  we  look  upon 
the  New  England  churches  and  colleges,  the  creation 
of  the  voluntary  principle,  institutions  of  humanity 
brought   into  existence   in   the  day  of  small   things ; 


2)enominatlonal  /iBemodcs  anD  IFnsplratlons  37 

when  we  look  at  the  greatness  in  influence  to  which 
these  churches  have  come,  at  the  authority  in  the 
world  of  science  and  of  letters  to  which  these  col- 
leges have  risen ;  and  when  we  reflect  that  these 
far-shining  centres  of  love  and  learning  are  largely 
monuments  to  our  Congregational  laymen,  we  begin 
to  apprehend  from  what  high  and  heroic  generations 
we  have  come.  From  our  limits  in  the  east  to  those 
in  the  west,  and  from  north  to  south,  the  country  is 
dotted  over  with  monuments  to  the  love  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  sound  relis^ion  that  is  the  inherited  tra- 
dition  of  our  laymen,  and  that  in  them  has  become 
a  fundamental  and  ruling  instinct.  The  sense  of  the 
worth  of  the  nation  is  at  the  heart  of  it  all,  and 
science  and  faith,  learning  and  religion,  insight  and 
character  are  for  the  establishment  of  the  American 
people  in  righteousness  and  hope. 

The  astonishing  gifts  of  individual  men,  in  these 
days  of  fabulous  fortunes,  are  apt  to  draw  attention 
from  the  far  grander  fact,  that  in  days  of  hardship 
and  penury  in  the  first  instance,  and  later,  in  the 
years  of  humble  incomes,  our  laymen  gave  of  their 
substance  for  the  creation  and  endowment  of  colleges, 
gave  of  their  substance  for  the  multiplication  and 
support  of  churches,  reserved  from  their  small  store 
a  constant  and  generous  contribution  for  the  culti- 
vation of  ideal  interests,  and  for  the  realization  of 
ideal  ends.  The  universities  and  churches  of  the 
old  world  are  largely  the  product  of  the  state.  The 
people  are  taxed  that  these  instruments  of  science 
and  religion  may  come  into  existence,  and  that  they 
may  continue  in  existence.  Our  ideal  in  science  and 
in  religion  is  creation  and  support  out  of  the  will  of 


38  Denomlnatfonal  Memories  an&  Inspirations 

the  people,  and  in  all  history  there  is  nothing  to  sur- 
pass, if  indeed  there  is  anything  to  match,  this  high 
devotion  to  ideal  interests  originating  in  the  enlight- 
ened minds  and  democratic  sympathies  of  New  Eng- 
land Congregationalists,  and  spreading  from  them, 
like  airs  from  heaven,  over  the  whole  country.  Our 
laymen  have  been  the  strength  of  the  church,  the 
vigor  of  the  college,  the  resource  of  the  nation,  the 
sagacious  and  resolute  organizers  of  the  Christian 
ideal  into  the  service  of  the  people.  All  honor  to 
them  tonight.  For  the  past  fifty  years  they  have 
never  wearied  in  well-doing,  and  the  highest  praise 
that  we  can  bestow  upon  the  living  is  that  they  are 
worthy  of  the  venerated  dead.  This  is  part  of  our 
apostolical  succession.  We  are  unconcerned  about 
the  official  continuity  of  our  ministers  back  to  the 
apostles,  unconcerned  about  our  official  relation  to 
bishops  who  claim  to  date  from  Peter  or  Paul  or 
John.  That  relation  through  ordination  or  the  want 
of  it  is  to  an  enlightened  mind  a  trivial  circumstance. 
About  the  unbroken  succession  of  our  laymen  from 
the  centurion  who  made  his  great  confession  in  the 
presence  of  the  dead  Christ,  and  of  Joseph  of  Arima- 
thea  who  begged  Pilate  that  he  might  give  the  dead 
Master  burial ;  about  the  unbroken  succession  of  our 
women  from  the  Syrophoenician  mother  and  from 
the  sisters  in  Bethany,  we  are  greatly  concerned. 
When  we  read  of  Aquila  and  Priscilla  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  in  the  churches  of  New  England  we 
devoutly  pray  that  their  character  may  repeat  itself 
in  all  generations.  So  long  as  the  brotherhood  that 
constitutes  the  Congregational  churches  of  America 
shall  remain  wise  and  strong,  devout  and  self-denying, 


Dcnominatfonal   /Ibcmorfes  anD  "ffnsptrations  39 

able  to  control  the  world,  and  to  turn  it  in  part,  at 
least,  into  a  servant  of  the  Christian  ideal,  so  long 
shall  our  order  flourish,  and  go  from  strength  unto 
strength. 

Here  as  well  as  anywhere  a  few  words  may  be 
said  of  the  societies  that  have  their  home  in  the 
Congregational  House.  Our  order  is  a  working 
order.  Part  of  the  strength  of  the  denomination  is 
in  its  intelligence.  There  is  our  general  theological 
belief  holding  in  it  many  of  the  greatest  ideas  that 
have  entered  human  history,  and  there  is  the  special 
tradition  of  high  intellectual  power.  But  the  voca- 
tion of  the  thinker  and  believer  completes  itself  in 
the  vocation  of  the  doer.  The  best  book  in  correc- 
tion of  the  difficulties  of  the  mere  thinker  or  believer 
is  Fichte's  classic,  "  The  Vocation  of  Man."  The 
ring  of  that  book  is  the  better  music  in  much  of  the 
higher  thought  of  the  last  hundred  years.  It  lies 
behind  Carlyle's  gospel  of  work ;  it  is  a  living  force 
in  the  whole  modern  recognition  of  the  primacy  of 
will  in  man. 

Our  denominational  societies  are  the  eyes  that 
search  the  land,  that  search  the  world  for  the  needs 
of  men  and  the  opportunities  of  the  gospel ;  the 
eyes  to  discover  human  want  and  the  arms  to  bring 
together  the  hunger  of  the  soul  and  the  bread  of  life. 
More  than  all  else  these  societies  proclaim  that  we 
are  a  working  denomination,  that  we  are  doers  of  the 
word  of  God  for  the  city,  the  commonwealth,  the  na- 
tion, and  the  race ;  that  as  Christians  we  are  citizens, 
patriots,  and  men;  that  we  regard  the  entire  ideal 
treasure  in  our  Lord  as  a  guide  and  inspiration  in 
the   service   of   humanity.      Nothing  more    deserves 


40  Denominational  Memories  anD  Unspirations 

our  devotion  than  these  societies.  Nothing  is  more 
alarming  than  their  decline,  nothing  more  signally 
proves  our  denominational  vitality  than  their  in- 
crease in  power.  That  the  wisest  and  best  of  our 
people  support  and  love  them,  that  they  thank  God 
for  the  expressions  and  powers  of  the  churches  which 
they  are,  bringing  together  the  needs  near  and  re- 
mote and  the  saving  strength  of  our  faith,  is  surely 
one  of  our  profoundest  inspirations. 

Among  the  multitude  of  names  of  ministers  sug- 
gested by  a  visit  to  the  library  of  the  Associa- 
tion I  select  four  for  special  mention.  The  first  is 
Edwards  A.  Park,  preacher,  teacher,  scientific  theo- 
logian, leader  here  in  Massachusetts  for  an  entire 
generation  in  every  great  interest  of  the  churches 
of  our  order. 

In  looking  back  upon  the  career  of  this  remark- 
able man,  it  is  essential  to  bear  in  mind  that  in  com- 
mon with  the  generation  to  which  he  belonged,  he 
became  involved  in  the  most  surprising  and  radical 
revolution  in  Christian  history.  We  shall  utterly  fail 
in  justice  to  our  great  predecessors  if  we  overlook 
this  supreme  fact.  Here  and  there  indeed  a  seer 
escaped  the  doom  that  overtook  suddenly,  as  a  thief 
in  the  night,  an  entire  generation  of  scholars,  think- 
ers, teachers,  and  preachers ;  here  and  there  an  orig- 
inal mind  anticipated  the  coming  change,  and,  like 
a  wise  sailor,  caught  its  power  with  all  sails  set.  It 
was  otherwise  with  the  mass  of  even  able  and  noble 
men.  A  new  view  of  nature,  a  new  sense  of  history, 
a  new  conception  of  literary  and  historical  criticism, 
a  new  application  of  scientific. method,  and  the  sub- 


PKOK.    KJ)\VAK1)S    A.    I'AKK 


E>cnomlnatlonal  /Dbemorics  anO   Inepiratfons  41 

jection  to  critical  consideration  of  every  human  inter- 
est, a  new  consciousness  of  the  work  of  the  great 
historic  thinkers  of  mankind,  and  the  entrance  of 
theology  into  the  arena  of  philosophic  debate,  with 
a  fair  field  and  no  favor,  brought  about,  within  the 
space  of  a  decade,  an  incredible  change  in  the  world 
of  thought.  Men  who  were  in  the  vanguard  in  1870, 
found  themselves  in  the  rearguard  in  1880.  When 
these  men  saw  their  work  as  scholars  discredited, 
their  methods  as  Biblical  interpreters  disowned,  their 
systems  of  theology  built  up  with  immense  ability 
and  devotion  wholly  disregarded,  it  is  not  strange 
that  they  lost  their  finest  temper,  that  they  failed  in 
sympathy  with  the  new  era,  that  they  grew,  in  some 
instances,  hostile  and  bitter  to  younger  men,  that 
they  set  themselves  with  Herculean  strength  to  avert 
what  they  regarded  as  a  calamity.  That  new  order 
could  not  be  averted.  It  is  in  vain  that  the  strongest 
stand  in  the  path  of  the  inevitable.  Edmund  Burke 
could  not  arrest  that  insurrection  of  humanity  —  the 
French  Revolution,  and  Daniel  Webster  could  not 
suppress  the  burning  assertion  of  the  Puritan  con- 
science in  the  presence  of  human  slavery.  Prayers 
and  imprecations  may  do  much,  but  they  cannot  con- 
trol the  dawn  or  hold  back  the  rising  sun.  The  new 
era  came  with  the  sudden  and  quiet  might  of  day- 
break, smiling  serenely  in  the  face  of  opposition,  and 
men  who  had  hitherto  conquered  and  controlled  every- 
thing were  smitten  helpless  as  from  the  bow  of 
Apollo.  We  must  antedate  this  hour  of  unhappy 
opposition  to  the  progress  of  the  world,  we  must  go 
back  to  the  earlier  time,  if  we  would  do  justice  to  the 
men  of  heroic  size  who  led  thought  and  who  inspired 
life  in  the  generation  preceding  our  own. 


42  Denominational  itsemoxies  and  Inspitationa 

Professor  Park  represents  that  large  class  of  con- 
servative men  whose  merit  is  likely  to  be  unrecog- 
nized on  account  of  their  want  of  relation  to  our 
time.  He  was  of  his  class  easily  the  first.  He  knew 
the  New  England  churches,  the  New  England  min- 
istry, the  New  England  theology  and  the  earlier 
New  England  character  and  traditions  as  few  men 
have  ever  known  them.  He  was  a  preacher  un- 
equaled  in  his  order,  one  whose  great  sermons  be- 
came traditions  of  power  in  all  the  denominations, 
and  among  all  types  of  belief.  Men  will  differ  in 
their  judgments  about  such  matters  as  they  do  about 
everything  else ;  still  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the 
greatest  sermon  ever  preached  in  Boston,  —  greatest 
for  immediate  impression  upon  one  of  the  most  in- 
tellectual audiences  ever  assembled  in  the  city,  and 
for  its  recognition  of  the  function  of  life  in  theol- 
ogy, —  was  Professor  Park's  discourse  on  "  The 
Theology  of  the  Intellect  and  the  Theology  of  Feel- 
ing." The  sermon  was  preached  in  1850,  in  the  old 
Brattle  Street  church,  before  the  Convention  of 
Congregational  Ministers  of  Massachusetts.  Among 
those  who  heard  it,  Unitarians  and  Trinitarians  alike, 
there  was  but  one  conviction  concerning  it,  and  that 
was  of  its  transcendent  power.  Professor  Park  was 
then  in  his  forty-second  year,  and  if  he  had  allowed 
his  thought  in  that  great  discourse  to  control  and 
shape  his  entire  teaching,  instead  of  being  the  last 
of  the  old  order  of  theologians  he  would  have  be- 
come the  first  of  the  new.  If  he  had  utilized  his 
insight  that  the  content  of  genuine  Christian  feeling 
is  an  eternal  content,  while  the  theories  of  the  intel- 
lect chase  each  other,  in  their  discovered  inadequacy 


Denominational  ftcmotlee  anO  Unsptrations  43 

as  philosophy,  like  shadows  over  the  summer  grass ; 
if  he  had  turned  the  intellect  upon  the  deposit  of 
faith  laid  up  in  the  Christian  heart,  stored  in  the 
Christian  consciousness,  treasured  in  the  soul  of 
Christ;  if  he  had  allowed  the  enlightened  conscience 
to  cleanse  the  Augean  stable  of  the  mediaeval  under- 
standing, Edwards  A.  Park  would  have  stood  for  the 
dawn  of  a  new  day  in  American  theology.  The 
promise  of  all  this  burned  in  the  eloquence  of  that 
sermon ;  a  promise  unfulfilled  by  Park,  but  now  re- 
ceiving fulfillment  by  the  men  who  have  entered 
into  his  labors. 

Upon  serious  subjects  Professor  Park  was  prob- 
ably the  greatest  teacher  that  we  have  ever  had.  He 
made  preachers,  and  filled  the  pulpits  of  the  land 
with  them.  In  the  power  of  creating  enthusiasm  for 
the  calling  of  the  preacher  he  has  never  been  ex- 
celled. He  was  a  master  in  the  realm  of  thought. 
He  gave  to  New  England  divinity  an  expression 
which  for  ingenuity  and  dialectical  force  has  never 
been  surpassed.  He  was  a  tireless  promoter  of  all 
forms  of  sacred  learning,  and  eagle-eyed  in  the  rec- 
ognition of  young  men  of  promise.  Scores  of  the 
men  who  afterwards  became  scholars  of  national 
fame,  and  who  grieved  their  teacher  by  undermining 
or  shelling  the  forts  that  he  had  constructed,  were 
frank  in  the  confession  that  Professor  Park  first 
inspired  them  with  the  scholar's  enthusiasm  and 
directed  them  in  the  selection  of  the  subjects  in 
which  they  rose  to  authority. 

This  fascinating  man  has  another  distinction. 
He  was  a  master  in  the  delineation  of  character. 
Here  his  sermon  on  Moses  Stuart  may  well  serve 


44  Denominational  /iBcmotlcs  an5  Unspiratlons 

as  a  model.  Nothing  could  well  be  finer  than  its 
appreciation  and  its  honest  and  yet  reverent  indica- 
tion of  limitations.  His  biographies  of  Samuel  Hop- 
kins and  Nathaniel  Emmons  are  unique  in  the  class 
of  literature  to  which  they  belong.  Professor  Park 
had  an  eye  for  a  heroic  character,  a  vision  that  took, 
with  immense  vividness,  the  image  of  the  great  per- 
sonality in  its  leading  features  and  in  its  significant 
detail.  He  possessed  in  a  remarkable  degree  the 
historical  imagination,  and  where  his  sympathies 
were  keenly  enlisted,  working  as  they  did  through 
an  intellect  of  sleepless  critical  activity,  the  result 
was  a  portrait  of  a  kingly  person  drawn  to  the  life. 
His  biographies  never  sink  into  blind  adulation. 
They  are  never  mere  appreciations.  As  a  delineator 
of  character  he  had  the  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes. 
He  does  not  idealize  his  hero  out  of  all  relation  to 
the  facts  and  the  characteristics  of  his  career.  He 
sees  the  real  hero,  and  has  the  good  sense  to  know 
that  in  the  lights  and  shadows,  in  the  colors  gay  and 
gray,  brilliant  and  dark,  are  the  materials  for  an 
authentic  portrait  of  the  great  man,  and  one  im- 
measurably more  potent  than  that  which  uncritical 
homage   and  unchastened  imagination  can  paint. 

Professor  Park  was  a  man  memorable  for  his  wit, 
his  humor,  his  sarcasm ;  a  man  from  whom  came,  for 
a  generation,  the  larger  part  of  all  the  good  stories, 
and  a  considerable  portion  of  the  keenest  comments 
on  current  affairs.  He  constructed  out  of  anecdote 
a  ritual  of  humor,  and  one  could  wish  that  the  ritual 
might  become  record.  It  must  be  confessed  that  this 
great  man  had  bitter  prejudices ;  but  outside  the  cir- 
cle of  these  sad  infirmities,  a  more  accomplished  gen- 


Denominational  /Bbemorlee  anD   Unepfrations  45 

tleman  one  could  not  meet.  He  was  absolutely  free 
from  vanity,  clean  of  every  form  of  vulgar  egoism, 
ready  to  give  and  ready  to  receive  the  flow  of  wit 
and  of  wisdom. 

Professor  Park  was  an  imperial  personality.  In 
his  presence  even  extraordinary  men  looked  undistin- 
guished. Lacking  indeed  a  rich  nature,  wanting  in 
originality,  entirely  without  the  gifts  and  the  sympa- 
thies of  the  seer,  he  was  the  incarnation  of  keen  in- 
tellect, logical  alertness,  dialectical  skill ;  and  he  was 
this  in  thorough  accord  with  his  native  bent,  and 
in  the  highest  degree  of  accomplishment  —  in  disci- 
plined, compact,  commanding  character.  Let  us  be 
magnanimous  toward  the  mighty.  The  Greeks  did 
not  forget  Achilles  because  of  his  wrath ;  they  even 
found  in  that  wrath  an  epical  significance.  Let  us 
recall  tonight  the  Achilles  of  our  camp,  his  well- 
proportioned  and  towering  figure,  his  finely  molded 
head,  his  eagle  features,  —  their  keenness,  their  force, 
and  their  fire ;  his  voice  of  melody  and  command, 
his  intelligence,  filling,  shaping,  swaying  his  whole 
being,  the  impassive  face  and  the  avalanche  of 
humor,  or  wit,  or  sarcasm,  or  critical  remark,  the 
iron  will  that  would  have  made  him  the  first  of  stoics, 
the  loyalty  to  his  convictions  that  enabled  him  to 
confront  and  fight  almost  single-handed  a  revolution 
in  belief,  the  composure  and  the  uncomplaining  forti- 
tude of  the  fighter,  his  high  disdain  as  of  an  eagle 
in  defeat,  his  unfailing  dignity,  his  unembittered  and 
unbroken  spirit,  his  imperial  manhood.  The  portrait 
of  this  man,  could  we  but  find  one  with  skill  to  paint 
it,  would  add  to  the  distinction  of  any  hall  of  fame. 


46  H)enomtnatfonal  ^emodee  anO   fliisplrations 

The  most  famous  pupil  of  Professor  Park  was 
Richard  Salter  Storrs,  of  Brooklyn.  His  death  is 
so  recent,  and  the  place  that  he  filled  in  the  denomi- 
nation up  to  the  very  close  of  his  career  was  so 
large,  that  it  is  unnecessary  that  I  should  do  more 
than  refer  to  his  brilliant  name.  He  belonged  to  a 
class  of  men  of  whom  there  are  now  no  survivors. 
Edward  Everett,  Rufus  Choate,  and  Richard  Salter 
Storrs  were  orators  formed  upon  the  Roman  model  ; 
and  of  the  three  I  am  inclined  to  put  Storrs  first. 
Ciceronian  eloquence  is  not  native  to  Americans, 
and  it  required  a  rare  conjunction  of  gifts  in  the  man 
who  mastered  it,  and  who  made  it  a  power  in  the 
free  and  unconventional  life  of  this  republic  of  the 
west.  To  Dr.  Storrs  men  would  listen  for  hours ; 
and  a  good  example  of  this  enduring  spell  of  the 
orator  over  his  audience  is  furnished  by  the  remark 
of  Mr.  Beecher  to  his  neighbor,  after  a  wonderful 
address  in  the  Academy  of  Music:  "Brother  Storrs, 
for  the  first  hour  and  a  half  I  thought  you  were 
going  to  be  dull." 

Dr.  Storrs  could  be  surpassingly  effective  and 
brief  at  the  same  time.  It  will  be  long  before  his 
remarks  made  at  the  meeting  held  in  New  York  in 
1893,  in  memory  of  Phillips  Brooks,  are  forgotten. 
Old  man  as  he  was  he  rose  to  the  occasion,  and  in 
that  meeting  there  was  much  that  was  fine  and  thrill- 
ing, but  nothing  to  match  the  splendid  eloquence  of 
this  master.  Nor  will  another  brief  speech  of  his 
soon  fade  from  the  memory  of  those  who  heard  it, 
when  in  a  hot  municipal  campaign  against  corrup- 
tion, he  called  for  a  public  opinion  so  sharp  and  swift 
that  it  might  act  upon  these  robbers  of  the  people 


REV.    RICHARD    S.    STORKS 


Denominational  Memories  an&  Ungplratlons  47 

as  a  certain  sword  which  passed  so  quickly  and  com- 
pletely through  the  neck  of  a  villain  that  he  did  not 
know  that  he  had  been  decapitated  until  he  tried  to 
swear  and  could  not.  And  again  at  the  meeting  of 
the  American  Board  in  Minneapolis,  when  troubles 
were  many,  he  touched  the  situation  with  character- 
istic frankness  and  grace  when  he  referred  to  the 
person  who  carried  a  kind  of  cement  that  would 
mend  anything,  from  the  crack  of  a  teacup  to  the 
break  of  day. 

Dr.  Storrs  did  not  see  the  significance  of  the 
scientific  movement  of  his  age,  nor  did  he  interest 
himself  in  the  modern  view  of  the  Bible.  His  tastes 
and  sympathies  did  not  carry  him  into  the  compan- 
ionship of  the  great  philosophical  minds  of  the  race, 
nor  did  he  look  for  a  better  theological  expression  of 
Christianity  than  that  found  in  the  New  England 
divinity.  These  were  doubtless  limitations.  They 
serve  to  define  and  frame  the  figure  of  this  com- 
manding preacher.  He  was  a  scholar,  a  patrician  in 
nature,  in  thought,  in  taste,  and  in  culture,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  man  of  strong  and  just  character. 
He  was  a  person  of  wide  and  accurate  historical 
learning,  alive  with  the  sense  of  beauty  in  nature 
and  in  art,  one  whose  mental  operations  were  an 
incarnation  of  the  law  of  artistic  excellence,  whose 
speech  at  its  best  had  the  elevation  of  ancient  lit- 
anies, whose  illustrations  of  truth  had  in  them  the 
fiery  scope  and  splendor  of  sunsets.  He  was  largely 
and  honorably  useful  as  a  mediator  in  times  of  de- 
nominational distress;  he  was  for  more  than  a  gen- 
eration a  proud  distinction  in  our  order ;  and  as  a 
rhetorician    and    an    orator  of    the    antique    type  he 


48  Dcnomtnatfonal  /Hiemories  anO  Inspirations 

stands  without  a  rival  in  the  history  of  American 
Christianity.  When  in  one  of  his  elaborate  similes, 
his  imagination  found  in  the  movement  of  the  stars 
a  slow  assumption  of  the  form  of  the  cross,  he  was 
revealing  the  central  thought  and  enthusiasm  of  his 
own  heart.  For  him  the  cross  of  Christ  was  the 
symbol  of  the  soul  of  the  universe ;  the  token  of 
man's  refuge  and  hope. 

Contemporary  with  Edwards  A.  Park  was  Horace 
Bushnell.  He  divided  with  Park  the  theolo2:ical 
leadership  of  the  churches  of  our  order  in  New 
England.  He  was  a  man  of  original  insight,  a 
diviner  of  meanings  deeper  and  more  vital  than 
those  found  in  the  forms  of  the  current  orthodoxy, 
a  pioneer  in  doctrinal  investigation,  a  creative  mind 
in  the  realm  of  Christian  belief.  His  career  and  his 
character  are  part  of  the  treasure  of  the  denomina- 
tion. The  denomination  gave  him  his  freedom,  and 
it  supplied  that  inspiration  of  antagonism  without 
which  no  man  can  do  his  best  work.  There  is  a 
divine  reason  for  the  presence  in  Jerusalem,  when 
Nehemiah  attempts  to  rebuild  the  wall,  of  Sanballat 
and  his  set.  There  is  a  divine  reason  for  the  pres- 
ence of  Sanballat  in  New  England,  in  New  England 
Congregationalism,  in  Christian  history.  Job  could 
not  arrive  at  his  best  without  the  tormenting  Satan, 
and  Jesus  reached  the  full  maturity  of  his  Messianic 
consciousness  through  his  victorious  battle  against 
the  Adversary.  Dualism  must  not  be  allowed  as  an 
ultimate  fact;  there  is  but  one  original  and  eternal 
fountain  of  being.  But  short  of  the  intolerable  ex- 
treme   of  a    dualistic    universe,   there    may   well    be 


REV.    HOR  Ml     i;i   -II  \  I  1,1 


Denominational  /Bbemories  anD  "ffnspltattons  49 

a  dualism  of  history.  The  stream  of  the  Divine 
benignity  divides  with  the  birth  of  time  and  the 
advent  of  life,  and  the  coming  of  man  into  two 
branches  —  one  stands  for  the  sympathy  and  the 
other  for  the  high  hostility  of  the  universe.  Into 
the  order  of  human  society,  into  the  order  of  nature, 
into  the  order  of  the  universe,  as  it  affects  the  tem- 
poral life  of  man,  is  wrought  the  Adversary :  Behold 
the  goodness  and  the  severity  of  God. 

In  the  world  of  religious  faith,  as  elsewhere,  the 
opposing  forces  of  conservatism  and  radicalism  act 
and  react  on  each  other,  and  progress  is  the  issue 
of  the  collision.  All  that  Bushnell  said  was  not 
true ;  all  that  his  opponents  said  was  not  untrue ; 
and  in  the  high  combat  between  the  solitary  man  of 
genius  and  the  multitude  of  average  minds,  while  we 
thank  God  for  the  great  seer,  let  us  think  kindly  of 
those  persons  who,  by  their  antagonism,  brought  his 
message  to  a  fruitful  issue,  who  drove  him  deeper  in 
upon  God,  and  who  called  forth  the  profoundest  and 
the  best  that  was  in  him.  The  denomination  did 
distrust  Horace  Bushnell.  Many  thought  that  he 
had  no  place  in  it.  Much  bitterness  was  leveled 
against  him;  much  trouble  was  given  him.  But 
after  all,  his  denomination  stood  by  him.  It  gave 
him  his  opportunity.  Into  its  ministry  he  poured 
the  treasure  of  his  life,  and  through  it  his  influence 
has  gone  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

Horace  Bushnell  is  an  engaging  character.  The 
stress  of  his  soul  in  the  storms  that  raged  about  him 
during  the  larger  part  of  his  career,  the  candor  of 
the  man,  his  flawless  honesty,  his  profound  and  habit- 
ual religiousness,  the  romance  that  he  found  in  liv- 


50  Denominational  ^emorlce  anO  Insplratione 

ing,  the  way  in  which  he  took  his  nature  and  em- 
ployed it  in  the  discovery  and  in  the  realization  of 
truth,  his  unclouded  sense  of  an  ideal  world,  his  vast 
faith,  his  great  and  tender  love  combined  with  the 
most  fearless  courage  and  the  most  splendid  fighting 
qualities ;  his  deep  and  earnest  eyes,  his  noble  head, 
and  at  last  its  shock  of  white  hair,  his  face,  with 
the  feeling  of  eternity  and  of  solemn  triumph  en- 
graven upon  it,  make  him  for  thoughtful  men  and 
women  a  hero  of  the  faith  of  imperishable  worth  and 
charm. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  the  greatest  preacher 
for  the  people  that  our  order  has  produced ;  in  my 
judgment,  he  was  the  greatest  preacher  for  the  peo- 
ple that  America  has  produced.  He  was  not  a  theo- 
logian like  Park ;  he  was  not  a  scholar  and  rhetorician 
like  Storrs ;  he  was  not  a  profound  original  mind 
like  Bushnell ;  but  in  his  own  distinctive  excellence 
he  was  immeasurably  beyond  them.  Educated  in 
his  father's  house,  in  college,  and  in  early  associa- 
tions in  the  formal  doctrines  and  nice  distinctions  of 
New  England  theology,  he  was  well  fitted  to  discover 
in  the  service  of  the  church  the  limitations  of  his  in- 
herited belief.  In  his  day  the  material  did  not  exist 
for  the  reconstruction  of  theology.  Intuitions  and 
emotions,  the  witness  of  the  great  instincts  of  the 
soul  and  the  experience  of  the  heart,  are  what  one 
finds  in  Beecher.  One  is  sometimes  disappointed 
not  to  find  in  him  the  modern  view  in  its  integrity. 
But  to  condemn  him  for  this  failure  would  be  an  un- 
just judgment.  He  was  among  the  first  in  our  order 
to  reject  the  New  England  Calvinism.     He  did  not 


REV.    HENRY    WARD    BEECHER 


Denominational  ftcmovice  an&  fnsptratione  51 

put  a  new  scheme  in  the  place  of  the  rejected  scheme. 
For  that  the  time  was  not  ripe ;  for  that  service 
Beecher  had  not  the  power.  He  had  a  glorious 
vision  of  the  God  and  Father  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  He  knew  sonhood  in  his  own  nature ;  he 
was  a  true  son.  He  knew  fatherhood  as  few  have 
ever  known  it.  He  had  a  great  nature,  and  guided 
by  the  humanity  of  Christ,  he  sought  God  through 
his  whole  manhood.  Here  is  the  source  of  his  doc- 
trine. Christianity  is  the  revelation  of  God  through 
the  divine  humanity  of  Jesus,  and  Beecher  took  his 
own  great  human  soul  and  reached  through  the 
divine  humanity  of  his  Master  to  the  eternal  human- 
ity of  the  God  and  Father  of  men. 

Beecher's  teaching  was  the  surprise  of  the  nation 
in  its  richness,  in  its  simplicity,  in  its  fascination,  and 
in  its  amazing  vitality ;  and  when  we  think  of  it  as 
pervaded  by  the  widest  play  of  emotion,  as  filled  by  a 
voice  of  wondrous  compass,  melody,  and  intelligence, 
as  presented  by  a  genius  for  natural  expression  abso- 
lutely unequaled,  and  by  a  personality  of  heroic  vigor 
and  charm,  we  can  imagine  how  his  name  became  over 
the  whole  land  a  household  word.  When  we  add  to 
all  this  that  he  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  bravest  of 
the  anti-slavery  orators ;  that  he  had  a  genius  unsur- 
passed in  any  preacher  for  the  moral  appreciation  of 
political  life ;  that  the  honor  of  his  country  was  as 
close  to  him  as  that  of  his  own  home,  and  that  the 
supreme  single  service  of  his  career  was  the  revolu- 
tion of  opinion  which  he  created  in  Great  Britain  in 
favor  of  the  North  in  the  great  civil  conflict,  —  a  rev- 
olution of  opinion  accomplished  in  the  face  of  almost 
impossible  opposition ;  a  revolution  begun  and  carried 


52  Denominational  /Bbemories  anO  "Inspirations 

forward  by  his  indomitable  courage  before  howling 
mobs,  a  courage  that  could  not  be  intimidated,  that 
could  not  be  exhausted,  that  could  not  be  betrayed 
into  ill  temper,  that  clothed  itself  in  genial  humor,  in 
withering  irony,  in  silencing  disclosures  of  the  hol- 
lowness  and  hypocrisy  of  Great  Britain's  friendship 
for  the  South,  that  wrought  by  infinite  tact  and  infi- 
nite patience,  by  every  form  of  eloquence  from  the  play 
of  the  conversational  note  to  the  rolling  thunders  of 
impassioned  declamation,  and  by  as  splendid  an  ex- 
hibition of  the  power  of  speech  over  popular  and 
maddened  assemblies  as  was  ever  witnessed  in  the 
annals  of  mankind,  it  is  small  wonder  that  this  man 
became  the  hero,  the  idol,  of  the  American  people. 
If  the  shadow  of  shame  had  not  fallen  upon  him,  if 
his  good  name  had  not  been  clouded  by  a  vast  and 
subtle  slander,  if  his  sun  had  gone  down  clear  and 
full  after  the  glorious  brightness  of  the  day,  instead 
of  blazing  a  path  through  storms  and  thunder  clouds, 
there  would  have  been  no  name  in  the  annals  of  the 
American  pulpit  to  put  in  comparison  with  that  of 
Henry  Ward  Beecher.  It  is  with  inexpressible  thank- 
fulness that  all  good  people  behold  the  vast  shadow 
that  once  rested  upon  him  lifting,  and  we  may  hope 
that  his  great  soul  may  yet  come  forth  clear  as  the 
sun,  fair  as  the  moon,  and  for  all  the  hosts  of  wicked 
men,  terrible  as  an  army  with  banners.  What  could 
Benjamin  do  when  the  cup  was  found  in  his  sack  ? 
Could  he  prove  that  he  was  not  a  thief?  Could  he 
do  other  than  await  the  revelation  and  vindication 
that  time  and  the  truth  of  things  would  surely  bring  ? 
Such,  in  my  judgment,  was  Beecher's  case.  The  cup 
found  in  his  sack  had  been  put  there  by  malign  men. 


Denomtnattonal  /Memories  anD  Uneplratlons  53 

The  evidence  against  him  was  manufactured,  —  lied 
into  existence  by  word  and  deed.  What  could  he  do, 
what  could  any  man  do,  but  confront  and  defy  it,  and 
abide  the  righteous  revelations  of  time  ? 

Beecher's  eloquence  was  of  orchestral  variety  and 
fullness.  He  spoke  with  the  inevitableness  and  ease 
of  nature.  He  could  storm  and  thunder;  and  he 
could  utter,  in  the  lowest  and  sweetest  notes,  the  in- 
finite compassions.  Not  his  indignation,  although 
that  was  grand ;  not  his  humor,  although  that  was 
without  guile ;  not  his  didactic  address,  although  that 
was  surpassingly  clear;  not  his  great  enthusiasm, 
although  that  was  instinct  with  high  contagion ;  but 
his  pathos,  his  deep-hearted  sympathy,  his  wondrous 
tenderness,  the  incomparable  way  in  which  he  carried 
the  wounded  spirit  back  into  the  divine  consolation, 
was  his  supreme  power.  He  could  comfort  men  with 
a  marvelous  range  of  sympathy,  he  could  comfort  a 
continent,  as  when  Abraham  Lincoln  fell,  from  his 
own  orreat  heart.  And  when  in  this  human  orchestra 
the  rolling  of  the  drum  ceased,  and  the  blast  of  the 
cornet  was  suspended,  and  the  gay  music  of  the  violin 
was  held  up,  and  the  soft  notes  of  the  solitary  flute 
floated,  as  from  heaven,  into  the  soul  of  the  congre- 
gation, one  can  imagine,  but  cannot  describe,  the 
magic,  the  mystery,  of  this  man's  speech. 

These  four  men  do  not  exhaust  the  kinds  of  power 
in  our  order.  They  do  not  include  the  technical 
scholar,  like  Moses  Stuart  and  Joseph  Henry  Thayer; 
nor  influential  writers  upon  polity,  like  Dexter  and 
Quint ;  nor  denominational  leaders,  like  Leonard 
Bacon ;  nor  evangelists,  like  Charles  G.  Finney  and 


54  Denominational  Memories  an5  ITnsplratlone 

Dwight  L.  Moody ;  nor  ministers,  of  the  peculiar 
grace  of  Edward  N.  Kirk  or  the  social  charm  of 
George  W.  Blagden ;  nor  preachers,  of  the  type  of 
Nehemiah  Adams  and  Leonard  Swain  and  Austin 
Phelps ;  nor  pastors  and  teachers,  of  the  unique 
genius  of  George  W.  Field ;  nor  men  of  heroic  mold, 
like  A,  L.  Stone  and  J.  M.  Manning,  who  surrendered 
their  pulpits  to  serve  with  their  regiments  in  the 
hour  of  their  country's  peril,  and  who  afterwards  re- 
sumed them  to  fill  them  with  high  thinking  and  the 
power  won  through  personal  sacrifice  and  suffering ; 
nor  the  great  army  of  servants  in  our  missionary 
societies  at  home  and  abroad.  Still,  these  four  men 
may  serve  to  remind  us  of  the  richness  and  the 
breadth  of  the  denomination.  There  is  room  in  it 
for  the  scientific  theologian  of  conservative  habit ; 
there  is  room  for  the  splendid  orator ;  there  is  a  place 
in  it  for  the  seer  whose  premises  are  first  principles, 
and  the  issues  of  whose  radicalism  none  but  the  Holy 
Spirit  can  forecast ;  and  he  belongs  in  it  who  is  the 
highest  incarnation  of  the  genius  of  preaching.  In 
these  four  names  we  may  well  behold  the  nameless 
host  of  the  servants  of  Christ  in  our  churches  whom 
they  recall.  "  The  Lord  hath  wrought  great  glory 
by  them  through  his  great  power  from  the  beginning. 
There  be  some  of  them  that  have  left  a  name  behind 
them ;  and  some  there  be  which  have  no  memorial ; 
who  are  perished  as  though  they  had  never  been. 
But  these  were  merciful  men,  whose  righteousness 
hath  not  been  forgotten.  Their  bodies  are  buried  in 
peace,  but  their  name  liveth  evermore.  The  people 
will  tell  of  their  wisdom,  and  the  congregation  will 
show  forth  their  praise." 


denominational  /llbemories  anJ>  Ifngpiratione  55 

It  has  been  an  inspiration  to  look  backward.  Is 
it  an  inspiration  to  look  forward  ?  Our  denorriina- 
tional  societies  are  increasing  in  wisdom  and  in 
power.  Our  contemporary  literature  is  as  vital  and 
serious  as  at  any  period  of  our  history.  Our  laymen 
are  alive  to  the  religious  need  of  the  nation ;  they  are 
worthy  of  those  whose  places  they  fill.  Our  ministry 
is  an  educated  ministry,  open  to  the  teaching  of  the 
time,  honest,  straightforward,  devout,  self-denying,  the 
joyous  servant  of  the  Christian  ideal.  But  men  are 
subject  to  the  mood  of  their  age.  A  new  mood  has 
arisen ;  it  fills  the  educated  world ;  it  reaches  the  en- 
tire intelligence  of  the  time.  Is  this  new  mood  for 
better  or  for  worse  ?  What  of  the  future  of  our  faith 
at  its  hands.'*  What  of  the  future  of  those  beliefs 
that  have  hitherto  been  the  perennial  fountain,  or  at 
least  the  indispensable  channel  of  our  greatest  in- 
spirations .f*  Are  we  permitted  now  to  work  and  to 
feel  as  of  old.'*  Are  we  forbidden  to  think  as  of  old  .f* 
How  long  can  work  and  feeling  go  forward  when 
thought  has  lost  its  hold  upon  the  Eternal  .'*  Does 
the  change  in  thought  mean  only  a  vaster  thought 
and  thus  a  profounder  feeling,  and  a  mightier  activity 
for  Christian  righteousness  ?  In  the  new  mood  of 
the  age  are  we  confronted,  like  ancient  Israel,  by 
a  possible  blessing  and  a  possible  curse  ?  In  our 
hope  and  in  our  fear  is  there  balm  in  Gilead  ?  Is 
there  a  physician  there  ?  The  intellectual  world,  the 
spiritual  world,  the  Christian  world  is  in  movement. 
Whither  is  it  bound .''  Who  is  its  leader  and  Lord  ? 
When  the  sea  breaks  its  immemorial  bounds  is  there 
any  law  or  force  upon  which  one  may  look  for 
the    control   of   the  fearful   flood  ?     When   Christian 


56  Denominational  /jBemories  anD  ITnsplrations 

scholars,  teachers,  preachers,  disciples  of  the  Lord 
have,  in  one  degree  or  another,  abandoned  imme- 
morial traditions  is  there  any  Guide  on  whom  we 
may  rely  for  the  conservation  of  the  best  in  history, 
and  for  the  control  and  happy  issue  of  the  whole 
daring  movement  of  man's  spirit  ? 

There  is  indeed  much  confusion  today  in  the 
field  of  belief,  and  much  need  of  patience.  You  have 
dedicated  to  the  ministry  of  Christ  the  son  whose 
entire  existence  has  been  covered  by  your  prayers. 
You  have  sent  him  to  college,  and  there  he  has  stood 
in  the  heart  of  the  world's  great  debate  between  the- 
ism and  atheism,  a  knowable  God  and  an  unknow- 
able, history  as  an  optimism  and  history  as  the  in- 
terminable desert  of  despair.  In  college  he  has  been 
trained  to  think,  to  question  every  affirmation,  to  try 
the  spirits  that  he  might  know  their  worth.  Is  it 
strange  that  under  this  discipline,  —  and  there  is  no 
other  discipline  that  is  intellectually  decent,  —  your 
son  should  come  forth  with  a  high  spirit,  a  vigorous 
understanding,  and  a  somewhat  attenuated  body  of 
belief?  You  send  this  son  to  the  divinity  school. 
The  mood  of  the  age  is  still  with  him.  If  it  is  not, 
send  him  anywhere  rather  than  to  that  inferno  of 
the  spirit.  In  the  modern  seminary  he  stands  in  the 
heart  of  the  great  debate  about  the  Bible.  How  came 
the  Old  Testament  to  be  what  it  is  ?  How  came  the 
New  Testament  to  be  what  it  is?  How  much  is 
authentic  history  ?  How  much,  if  any,  is  myth  or 
legend  or  the  accretion  of  the  creative  imagination 
of  after  times  ?  In  answer  to  these  questions  your 
son  hears  a  multitude  of  conflicting  tongues,  and 
Babel  itself  seems  peaceful  and  beautiful  order  com- 


Denominational  /Dbemorles  anJ)  Inspfratlons  57 

pared  to  this  unsilenceable  and  endless  uproar.  Again 
is  it  strange  that  your  son,  when  he  presents  himself 
for  ordination  as  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  should  be 
somewhat  uncertain,  and  perhaps  unsatisfactory,  in 
his  statement  of  faith  ?  You  cannot  blame  him.  You 
know  the  honor  of  his  soul,  you  know  the  integrity 
of  his  intellect,  you  know  the  deep  and  tender  vener- 
ation of  his  heart  for  his  Master,  you  know  that  he 
stands  ready  to  confess  him  in  service  and  in  sacrifice 
and  unto  tears  and  blood.  You  cannot  blame  him. 
Why  should  you  blame  his  teachers.'^  Why  should 
you  blame  anyone  ?  The  mood  of  the  age  is  upon 
us  all.  Whither  shall  we  go  from  its  spirit,  or 
whither  shall  we  flee  from  its  presence  ?  If  we  take 
the  wings  of  the  morning  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  sea,  even  there  shall  the  mood  of  the  time 
confront  us.  If  we  ascend  up  into  heaven  it  is  there ; 
if  we  make  our  bed  in  hell  it  is  there.  It  is  with  us 
in  the  darkness  and  in  the  light.  It  is  the  shadow 
of  God  in  the  mind  of  educated  man.  And  as  the 
shadow  of  God  we  must  behold  it,  we  must  implore 
for  its  meaning,  we  must  beg  for  its  name. 

The  profoundest  meaning  of  the  vast  and  restless 
mood  that  is  upon  us,  I  believe  to  be  the  divine  in- 
tention to  throw  us  back  upon  God,  the  Holy  Ghost. 
If  natural  law  seems  to  be  inviolable,  if  there  appears 
to  be  no  longer  any  room  left  for  miracle,  it  is  that 
the  whole  creation  may  appear  miraculous,  the  gar- 
ment that  God  is  weavins:  for  himself  on  the  roarino: 
looms  of  time,  under  the  eyes  of  the  living.  For  a 
few  miracles,  hard  to  grasp,  we  are  bidden  behold 
a  miraculous  universe,  where  all  things  depend  upon, 
where  all  things  reveal,  the  mystery  of  the  Infinite 


58  Denominational  /iftemories  ano   Ifnspiratione 

will.  No  man  is  intellectually  justified  in  denying 
the  miracles  of  Jesus ;  he  does  not  know  enough  to 
deny.  No  man  has  a  right  to  make  the  glory  of 
Christianity  depend  upon  the  miracle.  Does  the 
fourth  Gospel  mean  nothing  in  setting  the  life  of 
Jesus  into  the  life  of  the  world,  and  back  into  the 
life  of  the  universe,  and  up  into  the  life  of  the  Eternal 
God,  without  the  aid  of  miracle  ?  Consider  which  is 
the  grander,  the  story  of  the  incarnation  according  to 
Luke,  or  the  same  story  according  to  John. 

If  the  Bible  appears  to  be  no  longer  an  infallible 
book,  it  is  that  men  may  come  to  know  the  Divine 
inspirer  of  it.  The  Bible  seems  to  me  to  have 
gained  immeasurably  in  the  process  of  scientific  ex- 
amination. The  humanity  of  the  Bible  is  monu- 
mental ;  and  this  monumental  humanity  enables  us 
to  lay  hold  with  new  assurance  of  the  Eternal  hu- 
manity. "  The  burdens  of  the  Bible  old "  are  still 
out  of  the  Infinite.  In  the  lyric  and  epic  utterance 
of  supreme  souls  one  still  hears  the  accent  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  In  the  oracle  of  the  prophet,  in  the 
epistle  of  the  apostle,  and  in  the  eternal  wisdom  and 
tenderness  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  we  still  rise  as  on 
wings  into  the  presence  of  the  Most  High.  Theories 
about  the  Bible  are  born  and  die  like  the  swarms  of 
insects  in  summer;  but  the  Bible  in  its  really  great 
books  remains  what  it  has  always  been,  the  monu- 
mental witness  to  the  presence  in  man  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  If  we  live  in  God  we  shall  see  that  the  Bible 
lives  in  God ;  if  God  lives  in  us  we  shall  know  that 
God  lives  in  the  Bible. 

Even  the  uncertainty  about  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ,  which  I  so  much  deplore,  seems  to  me  to  be, 


©enomlnatfonal  /nbcmorlcs  anO   Unsplrations  59 

in  a  way,  providential.  "  It  is  expedient  for  you  that 
I  go  away ; "  so  spoke  the  Lord.  The  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  is,  after  all,  the  religion  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  church  is  the  church  of  the  risen  Lord. 
The  church  began  in  the  consciousness  of  the  risen 
and  reigning  Christ.  It  can  never  be,  without  out- 
rage upon  history,  without  revolt  from  Christian 
reason,  the  church  of  the  dead  Christ.  With  this 
fountain  of  organized  Christianity  sure,  with  this 
consciousness  rising  and  terminating  in  the  Lord 
who  abolished  death,  we  have  nothing  to  fear.  Be- 
hind that,  below  that,  sane  criticism  cannot  go.  And 
with  this  consciousness  as  channel,  there  comes  in 
upon  us,  if  we  will  but  open  the  gates,  the  floods  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Holy  Spirit  thus  becomes  the 
hope  of  the  church.  If  we  have  the  Holy  Spirit,  he 
will  guide  us  into  all  truth ;  he  will  recover  to  faith 
and  life  the  truth  that  the  church  may  from  time  to 
time  lose.  Thinking,  believing,  doing,  living  in  the 
strength  of  the  Holy  Ghost  —  there  is  no  hope 
save  in  that  experience ;  and  for  the  soul  and  for  the 
church  in  that  experience,  there  is  nothing  but  hope. 
What  if  all  the  criticism  and  uncertainty  of  the  age 
shall  prove  a  divine  discipline  toward  this  issue  ? 
What  is  the  final  beatitude  for  man  but  that  he  shall 
live  and  move  and  have  his  being,  full  of  love  and 
awe,  in  God.-^  For  what  do  we  hope  but  that  the 
tabernacle  of  God  shall  be  with  men  ?  For  what  do 
we  long  when,  in  the  language  of  the  Apocalypse, 
we  behold  the  holy  city,  the  New  Jerusalem,  with  no 
temple  therein,  save  the  soul  of  God  omnipresent 
and  omnipotent,  in  the  social  life  of  the  race }  The 
outgoing  mariner  leaves   much    behind.      The    dear 


6o  Denominattonal  /ebcmoties  atiD  flnsptratlons 

shores  fade  from  his  sight;  the  beloved  land  sinks 
deeper  and  deeper  under  the  horizon.  But  these 
shores  and  that  land  do  not  cease  to  be ;  they  remain 
part  of  the  order  of  the  world,  and  the  buoyant  and 
benign  sea  goes  with  him,  floating  him  with  its  joy- 
ous floods,  and  fanning  him  with  its  strong  winds, 
until  he  anchors  in  the  harbor  whither  he  is  bound. 
The  recorded  gospel,  the  recorded  Christ,  we  leave 
behind  as  the  swift  years  roll,  as  the  great  centuries 
pass.  That  divine  life  in  Galilee  and  in  Judea  is  far 
away  from  our  time.  We  may  weep  that  it  is  forever 
receding  from  the  successive  generations  of  men ; 
but  we  must  not  forget  that  it  is  part  of  the  history 
of  the  race,  that  it  is  the  abiding  and  the  supreme 
human  memorial,  and  the  glorious  deep  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  goes  forward  with  us ;  it  is  under  the  keel  of 
the  church.  Its  currents  are  all  toward  good.  Its 
winds  are  the  prevailing  forces  in  all  progress ;  and 
with  this  element  under  us,  and  with  these  inspira- 
tions behind  us,  filling  the  sails  of  faith,  and  blowing 
into  white  heat  the  great  furnaces  of  love,  we  have 
everything  to  hope  and  nothing  to  fear.  The  secret 
of  existence  for  the  individual  Christian  and  for  the 
whole  body  of  Christians  is  in  a  life  in  the  life  of 
God ;  in  a  life  that  cannot  be  plucked  out  of  his 
hand,  that  cannot  be  torn  from  fellowship  with  him. 
The  Christ  of  yesterday  and  the  Christ  of  tomorrow 
are  in  the  keeping  of  the  Christ  of  today.  The 
divine  past  and  the  divine  future  are  safe,  utterly  safe, 
when  held  in  the  divine  present.  "  God  is  our  refuge, 
a  present  help  in  time  of  trouble.  Therefore  will  not 
we  fear,  though  the  earth  be  removed  and  the  sea 
roar  and  be  troubled."     Go  forward  in  God  and  you 


Denominational  /Ibemodes  an£>  fnepiratione  6i 

shall  not  faint;  go  forward  in  him  and  you  shall  not 
fear.  The  planet  goes  forever  forward,  but  it  takes 
with  it  its  atmosphere ;  and  when  the  storms  are  still, 
it  looks  through  that  atmosphere,  as  through  a  vast 
window,  upon  the  numberless  shining  worlds  among 
which  it  rolls.  Let  the  moving  church  take  with  it 
the  faith,  the  experience,  the  protection,  the  infinite 
gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Let  it  roll  forward  in  the 
heart  of  this  mystery  of  encasing  deity ;  let  it  view 
all  worlds  of  science  and  art  and  philosophy  and  gov- 
ernment, all  the  shining  moods  of  human  culture,  and 
all  the  blasted  survivals  of  departed  glory,  through 
the  infinite  transparency  and  peace  of  the  Eternal 
Spirit.  The  church  that  shall  journey  onward,  rolled 
in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  shall  continue 
living,  fruitful,  beautiful,  and  to  it  God  shall  disclose 
more  and  more  of  the  splendor  of  his  universe. 


DATE   DUE 

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